Systems and methods for consistent enforcement policy across different SaaS applications via embedded browser

ABSTRACT

Embodiments described include systems and methods for managing sessions to one or more network applications accessed via a client application including an embedded browser. The client application establishes sessions to one or more network applications. The client application identifies a session timeout policy for managing the sessions of the client application. The session timeout policy specifies a time period for which a session is determined to be inactive. The client application monitors activity in the embedded browser for each of the sessions. The client application detects that inactivity of a first session of the sessions has reached the time period of the session timeout policy. The client application detects the inactivity responsive to the monitoring. The client application terminates each of the sessions via the embedded browser responsive to the detection.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present application generally relates to management of applications,including but not limited to systems and methods for using an embeddedbrowser to manage and monitor web and software-as-a-service (SaaS)applications.

BACKGROUND

As the workforce of an enterprise becomes more mobile and work undervarious conditions, an individual can use one or more client devices,including personal devices, to access network resources such as webapplications. Due to differences between the client devices and themanner in which network resources can be accessed, there are significantchallenges to the enterprise in managing access to network resources andmonitoring for potential misuse of resources.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods forapplying a consistent enforcement policy across differentsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) applications via an embedded browser. Aclient application executing on a client device can allow a user toaccess applications (apps) that are served from and/or hosted on one ormore servers, such as web applications and SaaS applications (hereaftersometimes generally referred to as network applications). A browser thatis embedded or integrated with the client application can render to theuser a network application that is accessed or requested via the clientapplication, and can enable interactivity between the user and thenetwork application. The browser is sometimes referred to as an embeddedbrowser, and the client application with embedded browser (CEB) issometimes referred to as a workspace application. The client applicationcan establish a secure connection to the one or more servers to providean application session for the user to access the network applicationusing the client device and the embedded browser. The embedded browsercan be integrated with the client application to ensure that trafficrelated to the network application is routed through and/or processed inthe client application, which can provide the client application withreal-time visibility to the traffic (e.g., when decrypted through theclient application), and user interactions and behavior. The embeddedbrowser can provide a seamless experience to a user as the networkapplication is requested via the user interface (shared by the clientapplication and the embedded browser) and rendered through the embeddedbrowser within the same user interface. By using the embedded browser,the present disclosure can apply a consistent enforcement policy acrossdifferent SaaS apps accessed via the client device executing the withembedded browser. For example, SaaS apps or services can have a varietyof session timeout policies, or no timeout policy. The presentdisclosure can set, configure, provide or otherwise apply a singlepolicy, or a per app policy that applies to all web or SaaS appslaunched from the CEB.

The client application can monitor keyboard activity during usage ofeach CEB session. When the time limit set by the administrator isreached, the client application can execute a command to kill the CEBapp for all CEB sessions. Further, the systems and methods of thepresent disclosure can allow a policy to keep sessions launched in theCEB to be kept alive as long as there is any activity in any of the CEBsessions. The activity monitor for each CEB session can report actualkeyboard activity to the primary CEB app. Each CEB session can include aprocess to simulate keyboard activity. The simulated keyboard activitycan include, for example, a blank space and enter then backspace orother keyboard activity that reports activity to the SaaS system butdoes not alter the desired user input into the CEB app or CEB session.The client application can execute the keyboard simulation in each idleCEB session when there is actual keyboard activity in any CEB session.However, when there is no actual keyboard activity in any session, thekeyboard simulation will not be run. Thus, the client application canfacilitate timing out all sessions according to the policy set by theCEB administrator.

In one aspect, this disclosure is directed to a method for managingsessions to one or more network applications accessed via a clientapplication including an embedded browser. The client application can beon a client device. The client application can establish sessions to oneor more network applications. Each of the sessions can be accessed viaan embedded browser of the client application. The client applicationcan identify a session timeout policy for managing the sessions of theclient application. The session timeout policy specifies a time periodfor which a session is determined to be inactive. The client applicationcan monitor activity in the embedded browser for each of the session.The client application can detect that inactivity of a first session ofthe sessions has reached the time period of the session timeout policy.The client application can detect the inactivity responsive to themonitoring. The client application can terminate each of the sessionsvia the embedded browser responsive to the detection.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser can be integrated into theclient application. In some embodiments, the one or more networkapplications can include an application hosted on a server accessed bythe client device via a network.

In some embodiments, the client application can establish one or moreactivity monitors for monitoring each session of the plurality ofsessions. In some embodiments, the one or more activity monitors canmonitor keyboard activity in each of the sessions.

In some embodiments, the client application can establish one or moreactivity simulators for simulating activity in each of the sessions. Insome embodiments, the client application can execute the one or moreactivity simulators for each idle session of the sessions if any one ofthe sessions has activity. In some embodiments, the client applicationcannot execute the one or more activity simulators for any of thesessions if all of the plurality of sessions are idle.

In some embodiments, the client application can execute a command toterminate the client application.

In another aspect, this disclosure is directed to a system for managingsessions to one or more network applications accessed via a clientapplication including an embedded browser. The system can include aclient application executable on one or more processors of a clientdevice. The client application can include an embedded browser. Thesystem can include one or more activity monitors. The client applicationcan include the one or more activity monitors. The client applicationcan establish sessions to one or more network applications accessed viathe embedded browser. The client application can identify a sessiontimeout policy for managing the sessions of the client application. Thesession timeout policy can specify a time period for which a session isdetermined to be inactive. The one or more activity monitors can monitoractivity in the embedded browser for each of the sessions. The one ormore activity monitors can detect that inactivity of a first session ofthe plurality of session has reached the time period of the sessiontimeout policy. The client application can terminate each of theplurality of sessions accessed via the embedded browser responsive tothe detection.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser can be integrated with theclient application. In some embodiments, the one or more networkapplications can include an application hosted on a server accessed bythe client device via a network.

In some embodiments, the one or more activity monitors can be configuredto monitor keyboard activity of the sessions. In some embodiments, theclient application can be configured to execute a command to terminateone of the client application, the embedded browser or each of thesessions.

In another aspect, this disclosure is directed to a system for keepingactive sessions to one or more networked applications accessed via aclient application including an embedded browser. The system can includea client application executable on one or more processors of a clientdevice. The client application can include an embedded browser. Thesystem can include one or more activity monitors. The system can includeone or more activity simulators. The client application can establishsessions to one or more network applications accessed via the embeddedbrowser. The client application can identify a session timeout policyfor managing the sessions of the client application. The session timeoutpolicy can specify a time period for which a session is determined to beinactive. The one or more activity monitors can monitor activity in theembedded browser for each of the sessions. The one or more activitysimulators can simulate activity in one or more of the sessionsresponsive to the one more activity monitors detecting that the one ormore sessions are idle and that the time period of the session timeoutpolicy has not been reached for any of the plurality of sessions.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser can be integrated with theclient application. In some embodiments, the one or more networkapplications include an application hosted on a server accessed by theclient device via a network.

In some embodiments, the one or more activity monitors can monitorkeyboard activity of the sessions. In some embodiments, an activitysimulator of the one or more activity simulators can execute for eachidle session of the sessions if the one or more activity monitors hasdetected that any one of the sessions has activity.

In some embodiment, the client application can be configured not toexecute the one or more activity simulators responsive to the one ormore activity monitors detecting that all of the plurality of sessionsare idle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages ofthe present solution will become more apparent and better understood byreferring to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of embodiments of a computing device;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an illustrative embodiment of cloudservices for use in accessing resources;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of an enterprisemobility management system;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 of an embedded browser;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system for usinga secure browser;

FIG. 6 is an example representation of an implementation for browserredirection using a secure browser plug-in;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of example embodiment of a system of using asecure browser;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system for usinglocal embedded browser(s) and hosted secured browser(s);

FIG. 9 is an example process flow for using local embedded browser(s)and hosted secured browser(s);

FIG. 10 is an example embodiment of a system for managing user access towebpages;

FIG. 11 is an example embodiment of a system for managing sessions toone or more network applications; and

FIG. 12 is an example embodiment of a method for managing sessions toone or more network applications.

The features and advantages of the present solution will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings, in which like reference charactersidentify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, likereference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar,and/or structurally similar elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For purposes of reading the description of the various embodimentsbelow, the following descriptions of the sections of the specificationand their respective contents can be helpful:

Section A describes a computing environment which can be useful forpracticing embodiments described herein.

Section B describes systems and methods for an embedded browser.

Section C describes systems and methods for managing sessions to networkapplications accessed via a client application including an embeddedbrowser.

A. Computing Environment

Prior to discussing the specifics of embodiments of the systems andmethods detailed herein in Sections B and C, it can be helpful todiscuss the computing environments in which such embodiments can bedeployed.

As shown in FIG. 1, computer 101 can include one or more processors 103,volatile memory 122 (e.g., random access memory (RAM)), non-volatilememory 128 (e.g., one or more hard disk drives (HDDs) or other magneticor optical storage media, one or more solid state drives (SSDs) such asa flash drive or other solid state storage media, one or more hybridmagnetic and solid state drives, and/or one or more virtual storagevolumes, such as a cloud storage, or a combination of such physicalstorage volumes and virtual storage volumes or arrays thereof), userinterface (UI) 123, one or more communications interfaces 118, andcommunication bus 150. User interface 123 can include graphical userinterface (GUI) 124 (e.g., a touchscreen, a display, etc.) and one ormore input/output (I/O) devices 126 (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, amicrophone, one or more speakers, one or more cameras, one or morebiometric scanners, one or more environmental sensors, one or moreaccelerometers, etc.). Non-volatile memory 128 stores operating system115, one or more applications 116, and data 117 such that, for example,computer instructions of operating system 115 and/or applications 116are executed by processor(s) 103 out of volatile memory 122. In someembodiments, volatile memory 122 can include one or more types of RAMand/or a cache memory that can offer a faster response time than a mainmemory. Data can be entered using an input device of GUI 124 or receivedfrom I/O device(s) 126. Various elements of computer 101 can communicatevia one or more communication buses, shown as communication bus 150.

Computer 101 as shown in FIG. 1 is shown merely as an example, asclients, servers, intermediary and other networking devices and can beimplemented by any computing or processing environment and with any typeof machine or set of machines that can have suitable hardware and/orsoftware capable of operating as described herein. Processor(s) 103 canbe implemented by one or more programmable processors to execute one ormore executable instructions, such as a computer program, to perform thefunctions of the system. As used herein, the term “processor” describescircuitry that performs a function, an operation, or a sequence ofoperations. The function, operation, or sequence of operations can behard coded into the circuitry or soft coded by way of instructions heldin a memory device and executed by the circuitry. A “processor” canperform the function, operation, or sequence of operations using digitalvalues and/or using analog signals. In some embodiments, the “processor”can be embodied in one or more application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), graphicsprocessing units (GPUs), microcontrollers, field programmable gatearrays (FPGAs), programmable logic arrays (PLAs), multi-core processors,or general-purpose computers with associated memory. The “processor” canbe analog, digital or mixed-signal. In some embodiments, the “processor”can be one or more physical processors or one or more “virtual” (e.g.,remotely located or “cloud”) processors. A processor including multipleprocessor cores and/or multiple processors multiple processors canprovide functionality for parallel, simultaneous execution ofinstructions or for parallel, simultaneous execution of one instructionon more than one piece of data.

Communications interfaces 118 can include one or more interfaces toenable computer 101 to access a computer network such as a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Personal Area Network (PAN),or the Internet through a variety of wired and/or wireless or cellularconnections.

In described embodiments, the computing device 101 can execute anapplication on behalf of a user of a client computing device. Forexample, the computing device 101 can execute a virtual machine, whichprovides an execution session within which applications execute onbehalf of a user or a client computing device, such as a hosted desktopsession. The computing device 101 can also execute a terminal servicessession to provide a hosted desktop environment. The computing device101 can provide access to a computing environment including one or moreof: one or more applications, one or more desktop applications, and oneor more desktop sessions in which one or more applications can execute.

Additional details of the implementation and operation of networkenvironment, computer 101 and client and server computers can be asdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,538,345, issued Jan. 3, 2017 to CitrixSystems, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the teachings of which arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

B. Systems and Methods for an Embedded Browser

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods of anembedded browser. A client application executing on a client device canallow a user to access applications (apps) that are served from and/orhosted on one or more servers, such as web applications andsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) applications (hereafter sometimes generallyreferred to as network applications). A browser that is embedded orintegrated with the client application can render to the user a networkapplication that is accessed or requested via the client application,and can enable interactivity between the user and the networkapplication. The browser is sometimes referred to as an embeddedbrowser, and the client application with embedded browser (CEB) issometimes referred to as a workspace application. The client applicationcan establish a secure connection to the one or more servers to providean application session for the user to access the network applicationusing the client device and the embedded browser. The embedded browsercan be integrated with the client application to ensure that trafficrelated to the network application is routed through and/or processed inthe client application, which can provide the client application withreal-time visibility to the traffic (e.g., when decrypted through theclient application), and user interactions and behavior. The embeddedbrowser can provide a seamless experience to a user as the networkapplication is requested via the user interface (shared by the clientapplication and the embedded browser) and rendered through the embeddedbrowser within the same user interface.

The client application can terminate one end of a secured connectionestablished with a server of a network application, such as a securesockets layer (SSL) virtual private network (VPN) connection. The clientapplication can receive encrypted traffic from the network application,and can decrypt the traffic before further processing (e.g., renderingby the embedded browser). The client application can monitor thereceived traffic (e.g., in encrypted packet form), and also have fullvisibility into the decrypted data stream and/or the SSL stack. Thisvisibility can allow the client application to perform or facilitatepolicy-based management (e.g., including data loss prevention (DLP)capabilities), application control (e.g., to improve performance,service level), and collection and production of analytics. Forinstance, the local CEB can provide an information technology (IT)administrator with a controlled system for deploying web and SaaSapplications through the CEB, and allow the IT administrator to setpolicies or configurations via the CEB for performing any of theforgoing activities.

Many web and SaaS delivered applications connect from web servers togeneric browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, and so on) of users.Once authenticated, the entire session of such a network application isencrypted. However, in this scenario, an administrator may not havevisibility, analytics, or control of the content entering the networkapplication from the user's digital workspace, or the content leavingthe network application and entering the user's digital workspace.Moreover, content of a network application viewed in a generic browsercan be copied or downloaded (e.g., by a user or program) to potentiallyany arbitrary application or device, resulting in a possible breach indata security.

This present systems and methods can ensure that traffic associated witha network application is channeled through a CEB. By way ofillustration, when a user accesses a SaaS web service with securityassertion markup language (SAML) enabled for instance, the correspondingaccess request can be forwarded to a designated gateway service thatdetermines, checks or verifies if the CEB was used to make the accessrequest. Responsive to determining that a CEB was used to make theaccess request, the gateway service can perform or provideauthentication and single-sign-on (SSO), and can allow the CEB toconnect directly to the SaaS web service. Encryption (e.g., standardencryption) can be used for the application session between the CEB andthe SaaS web service. When the content from the web service isunencrypted in the CEB to the viewed via the embedded browser, and/orwhen input is entered via the CEB, the CEB can provide added services onselective application-related information for control and analytics forinstance. For example, an analytics agent or application programminginterface (API) can be embedded in the CEB to provide or perform theadded services.

The CEB (sometimes referred to as workspace application or receiver) caninteroperate with one or more gateway services, intermediaries and/ornetwork servers (sometimes collectively referred to as cloud services orCitrix Cloud) to provide access to a network application. Features andelements of an environment related to the operation of an embodiment ofcloud services are described below.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of cloud services for use in accessingresources including network applications. The cloud services can includean enterprise mobility technical architecture 200, which can include anaccess gateway 260 in one illustrative embodiment. The architecture canbe used in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environment for instance. Thearchitecture can enable a user of a client device 204 (e.g., a mobile orother device) to both access enterprise or personal resources from aclient device 202, and use the client device 204 for personal use. Theuser can access such enterprise resources 204 or enterprise services 208via a client application executing on the client device 204. The usercan access such enterprise resources 204 or enterprise services 208using a client device 204 that is purchased by the user or a clientdevice 202 that is provided by the enterprise to user. The user canutilize the client device 202 for business use only or for business andpersonal use. The client device can run an iOS operating system, andAndroid operating system, or the like. The enterprise can choose toimplement policies to manage the client device 204. The policies can beimplanted through a firewall or gateway in such a way that the clientdevice can be identified, secured or security verified, and providedselective or full access to the enterprise resources. The policies canbe client device management policies, mobile application managementpolicies, mobile data management policies, or some combination of clientdevice, application, and data management policies. A client device 204that is managed through the application of client device managementpolicies can be referred to as an enrolled device. The client devicemanagement policies can be applied via the client application forinstance.

In some embodiments, the operating system of the client device can beseparated into a managed partition 210 and an unmanaged partition 212.The managed partition 210 can have policies applied to it to secure theapplications running on and data stored in the managed partition. Theapplications running on the managed partition can be secureapplications. In other embodiments, all applications can execute a setof one or more policy files received separate from the application, andwhich define one or more security parameters, features, resourcerestrictions, and/or other access controls that are enforced by theclient device management system when that application is executing onthe device. By operating using their respective policy file(s), eachapplication can be allowed or restricted from communications with one ormore other applications and/or resources, thereby creating a virtualpartition. Thus, as used herein, a partition can refer to a physicallypartitioned portion of memory (physical partition), a logicallypartitioned portion of memory (logical partition), and/or a virtualpartition created as a result of enforcement of one or more policiesand/or policy files across multiple apps as described herein (virtualpartition). Stated differently, by enforcing policies on managed apps,those apps can be restricted to only be able to communicate with othermanaged apps and trusted enterprise resources, thereby creating avirtual partition that is not accessible by unmanaged apps and devices.

The secure applications can be email applications, web browsingapplications, software-as-a-service (SaaS) access applications, WindowsApplication access applications, and the like. The client applicationcan include a secure application launcher 218. The secure applicationscan be secure native applications 214, secure remote applications 222executed by the secure application launcher 218, virtualizationapplications 226 executed by the secure application launcher 218, andthe like. The secure native applications 214 can be wrapped by a secureapplication wrapper 220. The secure application wrapper 220 can includeintegrated policies that are executed on the client device 202 when thesecure native application is executed on the device. The secureapplication wrapper 220 can include meta-data that points the securenative application 214 running on the client device 202 to the resourceshosted at the enterprise that the secure native application 214 canrequire to complete the task requested upon execution of the securenative application 214. The secure remote applications 222 executed by asecure application launcher 218 can be executed within the secureapplication launcher application 218. The virtualization applications226 executed by a secure application launcher 218 can utilize resourceson the client device 202, at the enterprise resources 204, and the like.The resources used on the client device 202 by the virtualizationapplications 226 executed by a secure application launcher 218 caninclude user interaction resources, processing resources, and the like.The user interaction resources can be used to collect and transmitkeyboard input, mouse input, camera input, tactile input, audio input,visual input, gesture input, and the like. The processing resources canbe used to present a user interface, process data received from theenterprise resources 204, and the like. The resources used at theenterprise resources 204 by the virtualization applications 226 executedby a secure application launcher 218 can include user interfacegeneration resources, processing resources, and the like. The userinterface generation resources can be used to assemble a user interface,modify a user interface, refresh a user interface, and the like. Theprocessing resources can be used to create information, readinformation, update information, delete information, and the like. Forexample, the virtualization application can record user interactionsassociated with a graphical user interface (GUI) and communicate them toa server application where the server application can use the userinteraction data as an input to the application operating on the server.In this arrangement, an enterprise can elect to maintain the applicationon the server side as well as data, files, etc., associated with theapplication. While an enterprise can elect to “mobilize” someapplications using the principles herein by securing them for deploymenton the client device (e.g., via the client application), thisarrangement can also be elected for certain applications. For example,while some applications can be secured for use on the client device,others might not be prepared or appropriate for deployment on the clientdevice so the enterprise can elect to provide the mobile user access tothe unprepared applications through virtualization techniques. Asanother example, the enterprise can have large complex applications withlarge and complex data sets (e.g., material resource planningapplications) where it would be very difficult, or otherwiseundesirable, to customize the application for the client device so theenterprise can elect to provide access to the application throughvirtualization techniques. As yet another example, the enterprise canhave an application that maintains highly secured data (e.g., humanresources data, customer data, engineering data) that can be deemed bythe enterprise as too sensitive for even the secured mobile environmentso the enterprise can elect to use virtualization techniques to permitmobile access to such applications and data. An enterprise can elect toprovide both fully secured and fully functional applications on theclient device. The enterprise can use a client application, which caninclude a virtualization application, to allow access to applicationsthat are deemed more properly operated on the server side. In anembodiment, the virtualization application can store some data, files,etc., on the mobile phone in one of the secure storage locations. Anenterprise, for example, can elect to allow certain information to bestored on the phone while not permitting other information.

In connection with the virtualization application, as described herein,the client device can have a virtualization application that is designedto present GUIs and then record user interactions with the GUI. Thevirtualization application can communicate the user interactions to theserver side to be used by the server side application as userinteractions with the application. In response, the application on theserver side can transmit back to the client device a new GUI. Forexample, the new GUI can be a static page, a dynamic page, an animation,or the like, thereby providing access to remotely located resources.

The secure applications can access data stored in a secure datacontainer 228 in the managed partition 210 of the client device. Thedata secured in the secure data container can be accessed by the securewrapped applications 214, applications executed by a secure applicationlauncher 222, virtualization applications 226 executed by a secureapplication launcher 218, and the like. The data stored in the securedata container 228 can include files, databases, and the like. The datastored in the secure data container 228 can include data restricted to aspecific secure application 230, shared among secure applications 232,and the like. Data restricted to a secure application can include securegeneral data 234 and highly secure data 238. Secure general data can usea strong form of encryption such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)128-bit encryption or the like, while highly secure data 238 can use avery strong form of encryption such as AES 256-bit encryption. Datastored in the secure data container 228 can be deleted from the deviceupon receipt of a command from the device manager 224. The secureapplications can have a dual-mode option 240. The dual mode option 240can present the user with an option to operate the secured applicationin an unsecured or unmanaged mode. In an unsecured or unmanaged mode,the secure applications can access data stored in an unsecured datacontainer 242 on the unmanaged partition 212 of the client device 202.The data stored in an unsecured data container can be personal data 244.The data stored in an unsecured data container 242 can also be accessedby unsecured applications 248 that are running on the unmanagedpartition 212 of the client device 202. The data stored in an unsecureddata container 242 can remain on the client device 202 when the datastored in the secure data container 228 is deleted from the clientdevice 202. An enterprise can want to delete from the client deviceselected or all data, files, and/or applications owned, licensed orcontrolled by the enterprise (enterprise data) while leaving orotherwise preserving personal data, files, and/or applications owned,licensed or controlled by the user (personal data). This operation canbe referred to as a selective wipe. With the enterprise and personaldata arranged as described herein, an enterprise can perform a selectivewipe.

The client device 202 can connect to enterprise resources 204 andenterprise services 208 at an enterprise, to the public Internet 248,and the like. The client device can connect to enterprise resources 204and enterprise services 208 through virtual private network connections.The virtual private network connections, also referred to as microVPN orapplication-specific VPN, can be specific to particular applications(e.g., as illustrated by microVPNs 250), particular devices, particularsecured areas on the client device (e.g., as illustrated by O/S VPN252), and the like. For example, each of the wrapped applications in thesecured area of the phone can access enterprise resources through anapplication specific VPN such that access to the VPN would be grantedbased on attributes associated with the application, possibly inconjunction with user or device attribute information. The virtualprivate network connections can carry Microsoft Exchange traffic,Microsoft Active Directory traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) traffic, applicationmanagement traffic, and the like. The virtual private networkconnections can support and enable single-sign-on authenticationprocesses 254. The single-sign-on processes can allow a user to providea single set of authentication credentials, which are then verified byan authentication service 258. The authentication service 258 can thengrant to the user access to multiple enterprise resources 204, withoutrequiring the user to provide authentication credentials to eachindividual enterprise resource 204.

The virtual private network connections can be established and managedby an access gateway 260. The access gateway 260 can include performanceenhancement features that manage, accelerate, and improve the deliveryof enterprise resources 204 to the client device 202. The access gatewaycan also re-route traffic from the client device 202 to the publicInternet 248, enabling the client device 202 to access publiclyavailable and unsecured applications that run on the public Internet248. The client device can connect to the access gateway via a transportnetwork 262. The transport network 262 can use one or more transportprotocols and can be a wired network, wireless network, cloud network,local area network, metropolitan area network, wide area network, publicnetwork, private network, and the like.

The enterprise resources 204 can include email servers, file sharingservers, SaaS/Web applications, Web application servers, Windowsapplication servers, and the like. Email servers can include Exchangeservers, Lotus Notes servers, and the like. File sharing servers caninclude ShareFile servers, and the like. SaaS applications can includeSalesforce, and the like. Windows application servers can include anyapplication server that is built to provide applications that areintended to run on a local Windows operating system, and the like. Theenterprise resources 204 can be premise-based resources, cloud basedresources, and the like. The enterprise resources 204 can be accessed bythe client device 202 directly or through the access gateway 260. Theenterprise resources 204 can be accessed by the client device 202 via atransport network 262. The transport network 262 can be a wired network,wireless network, cloud network, local area network, metropolitan areanetwork, wide area network, public network, private network, and thelike.

Cloud services can include an access gateway 260 and/or enterpriseservices 208. The enterprise services 208 can include authenticationservices 258, threat detection services 264, device manager services224, file sharing services 268, policy manager services 270, socialintegration services 272, application controller services 274, and thelike. Authentication services 258 can include user authenticationservices, device authentication services, application authenticationservices, data authentication services and the like. Authenticationservices 258 can use certificates. The certificates can be stored on theclient device 202, by the enterprise resources 204, and the like. Thecertificates stored on the client device 202 can be stored in anencrypted location on the client device, the certificate can betemporarily stored on the client device 202 for use at the time ofauthentication, and the like. Threat detection services 264 can includeintrusion detection services, unauthorized access attempt detectionservices, and the like. Unauthorized access attempt detection servicescan include unauthorized attempts to access devices, applications, data,and the like. Device management services 224 can include configuration,provisioning, security, support, monitoring, reporting, anddecommissioning services. File sharing services 268 can include filemanagement services, file storage services, file collaboration services,and the like. Policy manager services 270 can include device policymanager services, application policy manager services, data policymanager services, and the like. Social integration services 272 caninclude contact integration services, collaboration services,integration with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, andLinkedIn, and the like. Application controller services 274 can includemanagement services, provisioning services, deployment services,assignment services, revocation services, wrapping services, and thelike.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 200 can include anapplication store 278. The application store 278 can include unwrappedapplications 280, pre-wrapped applications 282, and the like.Applications can be populated in the application store 278 from theapplication controller 274. The application store 278 can be accessed bythe client device 202 through the access gateway 260, through the publicInternet 248, or the like. The application store can be provided with anintuitive and easy to use User Interface.

A software development kit 284 can provide a user the capability tosecure applications selected by the user by providing a secure wrapperaround the application. An application that has been wrapped using thesoftware development kit 284 can then be made available to the clientdevice 202 by populating it in the application store 278 using theapplication controller 274.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 200 can include amanagement and analytics capability. The management and analyticscapability can provide information related to how resources are used,how often resources are used, and the like. Resources can includedevices, applications, data, and the like. How resources are used caninclude which devices download which applications, which applicationsaccess which data, and the like. How often resources are used caninclude how often an application has been downloaded, how many times aspecific set of data has been accessed by an application, and the like.

FIG. 3 depicts is an illustrative embodiment of an enterprise mobilitymanagement system 300. Some of the components of the mobility managementsystem 200 described above with reference to FIG. 2 have been omittedfor the sake of simplicity. The architecture of the system 300 depictedin FIG. 3 is similar in many respects to the architecture of the system200 described above with reference to FIG. 2 and can include additionalfeatures not mentioned above.

In this case, the left hand side represents an enrolled client device302 with a client agent 304, which interacts with gateway server 306 toaccess various enterprise resources 308 and services 309 such as Web orSasS applications, Exchange, Sharepoint, public-key infrastructure (PKI)Resources, Kerberos Resources, Certificate Issuance service, as shown onthe right hand side above. The gateway server 306 can includeembodiments of features and functionalities of the cloud services, suchas access gateway 260 and application controller functionality. Althoughnot specifically shown, the client agent 304 can be part of, and/orinteract with the client application which can operate as an enterpriseapplication store (storefront) for the selection and/or downloading ofnetwork applications.

The client agent 304 can act as a UI (user interface) intermediary forWindows apps/desktops hosted in an Enterprise data center, which areaccessed using the High-Definition User Experience (HDX) or IndependentComputing Architecture (ICA) display remoting protocol. The client agent304 can also support the installation and management of nativeapplications on the client device 302, such as native iOS or Androidapplications. For example, the managed applications 310 (mail, browser,wrapped application) shown in the figure above are native applicationsthat execute locally on the device. Client agent 304 and applicationmanagement framework of this architecture act to provide policy drivenmanagement capabilities and features such as connectivity and SSO(single sign on) to enterprise resources/services 308. The client agent304 handles primary user authentication to the enterprise, for instanceto access gateway (AG) with SSO to other gateway server components. Theclient agent 304 obtains policies from gateway server 306 to control thebehavior of the managed applications 310 on the client device 302.

The Secure interprocess communication (IPC) links 312 between the nativeapplications 310 and client agent 304 represent a management channel,which allows client agent to supply policies to be enforced by theapplication management framework 314 “wrapping” each application. TheIPC channel 312 also allows client agent 304 to supply credential andauthentication information that enables connectivity and SSO toenterprise resources 308. Finally the IPC channel 312 allows theapplication management framework 314 to invoke user interface functionsimplemented by client agent 304, such as online and offlineauthentication.

Communications between the client agent 304 and gateway server 306 areessentially an extension of the management channel from the applicationmanagement framework 314 wrapping each native managed application 310.The application management framework 314 requests policy informationfrom client agent 304, which in turn requests it from gateway server306. The application management framework 314 requests authentication,and client agent 304 logs into the gateway services part of gatewayserver 306 (also known as NetScaler access gateway). Client agent 304can also call supporting services on gateway server 306, which canproduce input material to derive encryption keys for the local datavaults 316, or provide client certificates which can enable directauthentication to PKI protected resources, as more fully explainedbelow.

In more detail, the application management framework 314 “wraps” eachmanaged application 310. This can be incorporated via an explicit buildstep, or via a post-build processing step. The application managementframework 314 can “pair” with client agent 304 on first launch of anapplication 310 to initialize the Secure IPC channel and obtain thepolicy for that application. The application management framework 314can enforce relevant portions of the policy that apply locally, such asthe client agent login dependencies and some of the containment policiesthat restrict how local OS services can be used, or how they caninteract with the application 310.

The application management framework 314 can use services provided byclient agent 304 over the Secure IPC channel 312 to facilitateauthentication and internal network access. Key management for theprivate and shared data vaults 316 (containers) can be also managed byappropriate interactions between the managed applications 310 and clientagent 304. Vaults 316 can be available only after online authentication,or can be made available after offline authentication if allowed bypolicy. First use of vaults 316 can require online authentication, andoffline access can be limited to at most the policy refresh periodbefore online authentication is again required.

Network access to internal resources can occur directly from individualmanaged applications 310 through access gateway 306. The applicationmanagement framework 314 is responsible for orchestrating the networkaccess on behalf of each application 310. Client agent 304 canfacilitate these network connections by providing suitable time limitedsecondary credentials obtained following online authentication. Multiplemodes of network connection can be used, such as reverse web proxyconnections and end-to-end VPN-style tunnels 318.

The Mail and Browser managed applications 310 can have special statusand can make use of facilities that might not be generally available toarbitrary wrapped applications. For example, the Mail application canuse a special background network access mechanism that allows it toaccess Exchange over an extended period of time without requiring a fullAG logon. The Browser application can use multiple private data vaultsto segregate different kinds of data.

This architecture can support the incorporation of various othersecurity features. For example, gateway server 306 (including itsgateway services) in some cases might not need to validate activedirectory (AD) passwords. It can be left to the discretion of anenterprise whether an AD password is used as an authentication factorfor some users in some situations. Different authentication methods canbe used if a user is online or offline (i.e., connected or not connectedto a network).

Step up authentication is a feature wherein gateway server 306 canidentify managed native applications 310 that are allowed to have accessto more sensitive data using strong authentication, and ensure thataccess to these applications is only permitted after performingappropriate authentication, even if this means a re-authentication isrequested from the user after a prior weaker level of login.

Another security feature of this solution is the encryption of the datavaults 316 (containers) on the client device 302. The vaults 316 can beencrypted so that all on-device data including clipboard/cache data,files, databases, and configurations are protected. For on-line vaults,the keys can be stored on the server (gateway server 306), and foroff-line vaults, a local copy of the keys can be protected by a userpassword or biometric validation. When data is stored locally on thedevice 302 in the secure container 316, it is preferred that a minimumof AES 256 encryption algorithm be utilized.

Other secure container features can also be implemented. For example, alogging feature can be included, wherein all security events happeninginside an application 310 are logged and reported to the backend. Datawiping can be supported, such as if the application 310 detectstampering, associated encryption keys can be written over with randomdata, leaving no hint on the file system that user data was destroyed.Screenshot protection is another feature, where an application canprevent any data from being stored in screenshots. For example, the keywindow's hidden property can be set to YES. This can cause whatevercontent is currently displayed on the screen to be hidden, resulting ina blank screenshot where any content would normally reside.

Local data transfer can be prevented, such as by preventing any datafrom being locally transferred outside the application container, e.g.,by copying it or sending it to an external application. A keyboard cachefeature can operate to disable the autocorrect functionality forsensitive text fields. SSL certificate validation can be operable so theapplication specifically validates the server SSL certificate instead ofit being stored in the keychain. An encryption key generation featurecan be used such that the key used to encrypt data on the device isgenerated using a passphrase or biometric data supplied by the user (ifoffline access is required). It can be XORed with another key randomlygenerated and stored on the server side if offline access is notrequired. Key Derivation functions can operate such that keys generatedfrom the user password use KDFs (key derivation functions, notablyPassword-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2)) rather than creatinga cryptographic hash of it. The latter makes a key susceptible to bruteforce or dictionary attacks.

Further, one or more initialization vectors can be used in encryptionmethods. An initialization vector might cause multiple copies of thesame encrypted data to yield different cipher text output, preventingboth replay and cryptanalytic attacks. This can also prevent an attackerfrom decrypting any data even with a stolen encryption key. Further,authentication then decryption can be used, wherein application data isdecrypted only after the user has authenticated within the application.Another feature can relate to sensitive data in memory, which can bekept in memory (and not in disk) only when it's needed. For example,login credentials can be wiped from memory after login, and encryptionkeys and other data inside objective-C instance variables are notstored, as they can be easily referenced. Instead, memory can bemanually allocated for these.

An inactivity timeout can be implemented via the CEB, wherein after apolicy-defined period of inactivity, a user session is terminated.

Data leakage from the application management framework 314 can beprevented in other ways. For example, when an application 310 is put inthe background, the memory can be cleared after a predetermined(configurable) time period. When backgrounded, a snapshot can be takenof the last displayed screen of the application to fasten theforegrounding process. The screenshot can contain confidential data andhence should be cleared.

Another security feature relates to the use of an OTP (one timepassword) 320 without the use of an AD (active directory) 322 passwordfor access to one or more applications. In some cases, some users do notknow (or are not permitted to know) their AD password, so these userscan authenticate using an OTP 320 such as by using a hardware OTP systemlike SecurID (OTPs can be provided by different vendors also, such asEntrust or Gemalto). In some cases, after a user authenticates with auser ID, a text is sent to the user with an OTP 320. In some cases, thiscan be implemented only for online use, with a prompt being a singlefield.

An offline password can be implemented for offline authentication forthose applications 310 for which offline use is permitted via enterprisepolicy. For example, an enterprise can want storefront to be accessed inthis manner. In this case, the client agent 304 can require the user toset a custom offline password and the AD password is not used. Gatewayserver 306 can provide policies to control and enforce passwordstandards with respect to the minimum length, character classcomposition, and age of passwords, such as described by the standardWindows Server password complexity requirements, although theserequirements can be modified.

Another feature relates to the enablement of a client side certificatefor certain applications 310 as secondary credentials (for the purposeof accessing PKI protected web resources via the application managementframework micro VPN feature). For example, an application can utilizesuch a certificate. In this case, certificate-based authentication usingActiveSync protocol can be supported, wherein a certificate from theclient agent 304 can be retrieved by gateway server 306 and used in akeychain. Each managed application can have one associated clientcertificate, identified by a label that is defined in gateway server306.

Gateway server 306 can interact with an Enterprise special purpose webservice to support the issuance of client certificates to allow relevantmanaged applications to authenticate to internal PKI protectedresources.

The client agent 304 and the application management framework 314 can beenhanced to support obtaining and using client certificates forauthentication to internal PKI protected network resources. More thanone certificate can be supported, such as to match various levels ofsecurity and/or separation requirements. The certificates can be used bythe Mail and Browser managed applications, and ultimately by arbitrarywrapped applications (provided those applications use web service stylecommunication patterns where it is reasonable for the applicationmanagement framework to mediate https requests).

Application management client certificate support on iOS can rely onimporting a public-key cryptography standards (PKCS) 12 BLOB (BinaryLarge Object) into the iOS keychain in each managed application for eachperiod of use. Application management framework client certificatesupport can use a HTTPS implementation with private in-memory keystorage. The client certificate might never be present in the iOSkeychain and might not be persisted except potentially in “online-only”data value that is strongly protected.

Mutual SSL or TLS can also be implemented to provide additional securityby requiring that a client device 302 is authenticated to theenterprise, and vice versa. Virtual smart cards for authentication togateway server 306 can also be implemented.

Both limited and full Kerberos support can be additional features. Thefull support feature relates to an ability to do full Kerberos login toActive Directory (AD) 322, using an AD password or trusted clientcertificate, and obtain Kerberos service tickets to respond to HTTPNegotiate authentication challenges. The limited support feature relatesto constrained delegation in Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition(AGEE), where AGEE supports invoking Kerberos protocol transition so itcan obtain and use Kerberos service tickets (subject to constraineddelegation) in response to HTTP Negotiate authentication challenges.This mechanism works in reverse web proxy (aka corporate virtual privatenetwork (CVPN)) mode, and when http (but not https) connections areproxied in VPN and MicroVPN mode.

Another feature relates to application container locking and wiping,which can automatically occur upon jail-break or rooting detections, andoccur as a pushed command from administration console, and can include aremote wipe functionality even when an application 310 is not running.

A multi-site architecture or configuration of enterprise applicationstore and an application controller can be supported that allows usersto be service from one of several different locations in case offailure.

In some cases, managed applications 310 can be allowed to access acertificate and private key via an API (example OpenSSL). Trustedmanaged applications 310 of an enterprise can be allowed to performspecific Public Key operations with an application's client certificateand private key. Various use cases can be identified and treatedaccordingly, such as when an application behaves like a browser and nocertificate access is used, when an application reads a certificate for“who am I,” when an application uses the certificate to build a securesession token, and when an application uses private keys for digitalsigning of important data (e.g., transaction log) or for temporary dataencryption.

Referring now to FIG. 4, depicted is a block diagram of a system 400 ofan embedded browser. In brief overview, the system 400 can include aclient device 402 with a digital workspace for a user, a clientapplication 404, cloud services 408 operating on at least one networkdevice 432, and network applications 406 served from and/or hosted onone or more servers 430. The client application 404 can for instanceinclude at least one of: an embedded browser 410, a networking agent412, a cloud services agent 414, a remote session agent 416, or a securecontainer 418. The cloud services 408 can for instance include at leastone of: secure browser(s) 420, an access gateway 422 (or CIS, e.g., forregistering and/or authenticating the client application and/or user),or analytics services 424 (or CAS, e.g., for receiving information fromthe client application for analytics). The network applications 406 caninclude sanctioned applications 426 and non-sanctioned applications 428.

Each of the above-mentioned elements or entities is implemented inhardware, or a combination of hardware and software, in one or moreembodiments. Each component of the system 400 can be implemented usinghardware or a combination of hardware or software detailed above inconnection with FIG. 1. For instance, each of these elements or entitiescan include any application, program, library, script, task, service,process or any type and form of executable instructions executing onhardware of the client device 402, the at least one network device 432and/or the one or more servers 430. The hardware includes circuitry suchas one or more processors in one or more embodiments. For example, theat least one network device 432 and/or the one or more servers 430 caninclude any of the elements of a computing device described above inconnection with at least FIG. 1 for instance.

The client device 402 can include any embodiment of a computing devicedescribed above in connection with at least FIG. 1 for instance. Theclient device 402 can be any user device such as a desktop computer, alaptop computer, a tablet device, a smart phone, or any other mobile orpersonal device. The client device 402 can include a digital workspaceof a user, which can include file system(s), cache or memory (e.g.,including electronic clipboard(s)), container(s), application(s) and/orother resources on the client device 402. The digital workspace caninclude or extend to one or more networks accessible by the clientdevice 402, such as an intranet and the Internet, including filesystem(s) and/or other resources accessible via the one or morenetworks. A portion of the digital workspace can be secured via the useof the client application 404 with embedded browser 410 (CEB) forinstance. The secure portion of the digital workspace can include forinstance file system(s), cache or memory (e.g., including electronicclipboard(s)), application(s), container(s) and/or other resourcesallocated to the CEB 410, and/or allocated by the CEB to networkapplication(s) 406 accessed via the CEB. The secure portion of thedigital workspace can also include resources specified by the CEB (viaone or more policies) for inclusion in the secure portion of the digitalworkspace (e.g., a particular local application can be specified via apolicy to be allowed to receive data obtained from a networkapplication).

The client application 404 can include one or more components, such asan embedded browser 410, a networking agent 412, a cloud services agent414 (sometimes referred to as management agent), a remote session agent416 (sometimes referred to as HDX engine), and/or a secure container 418(sometimes referred to as secure cache container). One or more of thecomponents can be installed as part of a software build or release ofthe client application 404 or CEB, or separately acquired or downloadedand installed/integrated into an existing installation of the clientapplication 404 or CEB for instance. For instance, the client device candownload or otherwise receive the client application 404 (or anycomponent) from the network device(s) 432. In some embodiments, theclient device can send a request for the client application 404 to thenetwork device(s) 432. For example, a user of the client device caninitiate a request, download and/or installation of the clientapplication. The network device(s) 432 in turn can send the clientapplication to the client device. In some embodiments, the networkdevice(s) 432 can send a setup or installation application for theclient application to the client device. Upon receipt, the client devicecan install the client application onto a hard disk of the clientdevice. In some embodiments, the client device can run the setupapplication to unpack or decompress a package of the client application.In some embodiments, the client application can be an extension (e.g.,an add-on, an add-in, an applet or a plug-in) to another application(e.g., a cloud services agent 414) installed on the client device. Theclient device can install the client application to interface orinter-operate with the pre-installed application. In some embodiments,the client application can be a standalone application. The clientdevice can install the client application to execute as a separateprocess.

The embedded browser 410 can include elements and functionalities of aweb browser application or engine. The embedded browser 410 can locallyrender network application(s) as a component or extension of the clientapplication. For instance, the embedded browser 410 can render aSaaS/Web application inside the CEB which can provide the CEB with fullvisibility and control of the application session. The embedded browsercan be embedded or incorporated into the client application via anymeans, such as direct integration (e.g., programming language or scriptinsertion) into the executable code of the client application, or viaplugin installation. For example, the embedded browser can include aChromium based browser engine or other type of browser engine, that canbe embedded into the client application, using the Chromium embeddedframework (CEF) for instance. The embedded browser can include aHTML5-based layout graphical user interface (GUI). The embedded browsercan provide HTML rendering and JavaScript support to a clientapplication incorporating various programming languages. For example,elements of the embedded browser can bind to a client applicationincorporating C, C++, Delphi, Go, Java, .NET/Mono, Visual Basic 6.0,and/or Python.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser comprises a plug-in installedon the client application. For example, the plug-in can include one ormore components. One such component can be an ActiveX control or Javacontrol or any other type and/or form of executable instructions capableof loading into and executing in the client application. For example,the client application can load and run an Active X control of theembedded browser, such as in a memory space or context of the clientapplication. In some embodiments, the embedded browser can be installedas an extension on the client application, and a user can choose toenable or disable the plugin or extension. The embedded browser (e.g.,via the plugin or extension) can form or operate as a secured browserfor securing, using and/or accessing resources within the securedportion of the digital workspace.

The embedded browser can incorporate code and functionalities beyondthat available or possible in a standard or typical browser. Forinstance, the embedded browser can bind with or be assigned with asecured container 418, to define at least part of the secured portion ofa user's digital workspace. The embedded browser can bind with or beassigned with a portion of the client device's cache to form a securedclipboard (e.g., local to the client device, or extendable to otherdevices), that can be at least part of the secured container 418. Theembedded browser can be integrated with the client application to ensurethat traffic related to network applications is routed through and/orprocessed in the client application, which can provide the clientapplication with real-time visibility to the traffic (e.g., whendecrypted through the client application). This visibility to thetraffic can allow the client application to perform or facilitatepolicy-based management (e.g., including data loss prevention (DLP)capabilities), application control, and collection and production ofanalytics.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser incorporates one or more othercomponents of the client application 404, such as the cloud servicesagent 414, remote session agent 416 and/or secure container 418. Forinstance, a user can use the cloud services agent 414 of the embeddedbrowser to interoperate with the access gateway 422 (sometimes referredto as CIS) to access a network application. For example, the cloudservices agent 414 can execute within the embedded browser, and canreceive and transmit navigation commands from the embedded browser to ahosted network application. The cloud services agent can use a remotepresentation protocol to display the output generated by the networkapplication to the embedded browser. For example, the cloud servicesagent 414 can include a HTML5 web client that allows end users to accessremote desktops and/or applications on the embedded browser.

The client application 404 and CEB operate on the application layer ofthe operational (OSI) stack of the client device. The client application404 can include and/or execute one or more agents that interoperate withthe cloud services 408. The client application 404 can receive, obtain,retrieve or otherwise access various policies (e.g., an enterprise'scustom, specified or internal policies or rules) and/or data (e.g., froman access gateway 422 and/or network device(s) of cloud services 408, orother server(s), that can be managed by the enterprise). The clientapplication can access the policies and/or data to control and/or managea network application (e.g., a SaaS, web or remote-hosted application).Control and/or management of a network application can include controland/or management of various aspects of the network application, such asaccess control, session delivery, available features or functions,service level, traffic management and monitoring, and so on. The networkapplication can be from a provider or vendor of the enterprise (e.g.,salesforce.com, SAP, Microsoft Office 365), from the enterprise itself,or from another entity (e.g., Dropbox or Gmail service).

For example, the cloud services agent 414 can provide policy drivenmanagement capabilities and features related to the use and/or access ofnetwork applications. For example, the cloud services agent 414 caninclude a policy engine to apply one or more policies (e.g., receivedfrom cloud services) to determine access control and/or connectivity toresources such as network applications. When a session is establishedbetween the client application and a server 430 providing a SaaSapplication for instance, the cloud services agent 414 can apply one ormore policies to control traffic levels and/or traffic types (or otheraspects) of the session, for instance to manage a service level of theSaaS application. Additional aspects of the application traffic that canbe controlled or managed can include encryption level and/or encryptiontype applied to the traffic, level of interactivity allowed for a user,limited access to certain features of the network application (e.g.,print-screen, save, edit or copy functions), restrictions to use ortransfer of data obtained from the network application, limit concurrentaccess to two or more network applications, limit access to certain filerepositories or other resources, and so on.

The cloud services agent 414 can convey or feed information to analyticsservices 424 of the cloud services 408, such as information about SaaSinteraction events visible to the CEB. Such a configuration using theCEB can monitor or capture information for analytics without having aninline device or proxy located between the client device and theserver(s) 430, or using a SaaS API gateway ‘out-of-band’ approach. Insome embodiments, the cloud services agent 414 does not execute withinthe embedded browser. In these embodiments, a user can similarly use thecloud services agent 414 to interoperate with the access gateway (orCIS) 422 to access a network application. For instance, the cloudservices agent 414 can register and/or authenticate with the accessgateway (or CIS) 422, and can obtain a list of the network applicationsfrom the access gateway (or CIS) 422. The cloud services agent 414 caninclude and/or operate as an application store (or storefront) for userselection and/or downloading of network applications. Upon logging in toaccess a network application, the cloud services agent 414 can interceptand transmit navigation commands from the embedded browser to thenetwork application. The cloud services agent can use a remotepresentation protocol to display the output generated by the networkapplication to the embedded browser. For example, the cloud servicesagent 414 can include a HTML5 web client that allows end users to accessremote desktops and/or applications on the embedded browser.

In some embodiments, the cloud services agent 414 provides single signon (SSO) capability for the user and/or client device to access aplurality of network applications. The cloud services agent 414 canperform user authentication to access network applications as well asother network resources and services, by communicating with the accessgateway 422 for instance. For example, the cloud services agent 414 canauthenticate or register with the access gateway 422, to access othercomponents of the cloud services 408 and/or the network applications406. Responsive to the authentication or registration, the accessgateway 422 can perform authentication and/or SSO for (or on behalf of)the user and/or client application, with the network applications.

The client application 404 can include a networking agent 412. Thenetworking agent 412 is sometimes referred to as a software-defined widearea network (SD-WAN) agent, mVPN agent, or microVPN agent. Thenetworking agent 412 can establish or facilitate establishment of anetwork connection between the client application and one or moreresources (e.g., server 430 serving a network application). Thenetworking agent 412 can perform handshaking for a requested connectionfrom the client application to access a network application, and canestablish the requested connection (e.g., secure or encryptedconnection). The networking agent 412 can connect to enterpriseresources (including services) for instance via a virtual privatenetwork (VPN). For example, the networking agent 412 can establish asecure socket layer (SSL) VPN between the client application and aserver 430 providing the network application 406. The VPN connections,sometimes referred to as microVPN or application-specific VPN, can bespecific to particular network applications, particular devices,particular secured areas on the client device, and the like, forinstance as discussed above in connection with FIG. 3. Such VPNconnections can carry Microsoft Exchange traffic, Microsoft ActiveDirectory traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) traffic, HyperTextTransfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) traffic, as some examples.

The remote session agent 416 (sometimes referred to as HDX engine) caninclude features of the client agent 304 discussed above in connectionwith FIG. 2 for instance, to support display a remoting protocol (e.g.,HDX or ICA). In some embodiments, the remote session agent 416 canestablish a remote desktop session and/or remote application sessionusing any variety of protocols, such as the Remote Desktop Protocol(RDP), Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), Remote Frame Buffer (RFB)Protocol, and ICA Protocol. For example, the remote session agent 416can establish a remote application session for a user of the clientdevice to access an enterprise network application. The remote sessionagent 416 can establish the remote application session within or over asecure connection (e.g., a VPN) established by the networking agent 412for instance.

The client application or CEB can include or be associated with a securecontainer 418. A secure container can include a logical or virtualdelineation of one or more types of resources accessible within theclient device and/or accessible by the client device. For example, thesecure container 418 can refer to the entirety of the secured portion ofthe digital workspace, or particular aspect(s) of the secured portion.In some embodiments, the secure container 418 corresponds to a securecache (e.g., electronic or virtual clipboard), and can dynamicallyincorporate a portion of a local cache of each client device of a user,and/or a cloud-based cache of the user, that is protected or secured(e.g., encrypted). The secure container can define a portion of filesystem(s), and/or delineate resources allocated to a CEB and/or tonetwork applications accessed via the CEB. The secure container caninclude elements of the secure data container 228 discussed above inconnection with FIG. 2 for example. The CEB can be configured (e.g., viapolicies) to limit, disallow or disable certain actions or activities onresources and/or data identified to be within a secure container. Asecured container can be defined to specify that the resources and/ordata within the secure container are to be monitored for misuse, abuseand/or exfiltration.

In certain embodiments, a secure container relates to or involves theuse of a secure browser (e.g., embedded browser 410 or secure browser420) that implements various enterprise security features. Networkapplications (or web pages accessed by the secure browser) that areconfigured to run within the secure browser can effectively inherit thesecurity mechanisms implemented by the secure browser. These networkapplications can be considered to be contained within the securecontainer. The use of such a secure browser can enable an enterprise toimplement a content filtering policy in which, for example, employeesare blocked from accessing certain web sites from their client devices.The secure browser can be used, for example, to enable client deviceusers to access a corporate intranet without the need for a VPN.

In some embodiments, a secure container can support various types ofremedial actions for protecting enterprise resources. One such remedy isto lock the client device, or a secure container on the client devicethat stores data to be protected, such that the client device or securecontainer can only be unlocked with a valid code provided by anadministrator for instance. In some embodiments, these and other typesof remedies can be invoked automatically based on conditions detected onthe client device (via the application of policies for instance), or canbe remotely initiated by an administrator.

In some embodiments, a secure container can include a secure documentcontainer for documents. A document can comprise any computer-readablefile including text, audio, video, and/or other types of information ormedia. A document can comprise any single one or combination of thesemedia types. As explained herein, the secure container can help preventthe spread of enterprise information to different applications andcomponents of the client device, as well as to other devices. Theenterprise system (which can be partially or entirely within a cloudnetwork) can transmit documents to various devices, which can be storedwithin the secure container. The secure container can preventunauthorized applications and other components of the client device fromaccessing information within the secure container. For enterprises thatallow users to use their own client devices for accessing, storing, andusing enterprise data, providing secure container on the client deviceshelps to secure the enterprise data. For instance, providing securecontainers on the client devices can centralize enterprise data in onelocation on each client device, and can facilitate selective or completedeletion of enterprise data from each client device when desired.

The secure container can include an application that implements a filesystem that stores documents and/or other types of files. The filesystem can comprise a portion of a computer-readable memory of theclient device. The file system can be logically separated from otherportions of the computer-readable memory of the client device. In thisway, enterprise data can be stored in a secure container and privatedata can be stored in a separate portion of the computer-readable memoryof the client device for instance. The secure container can allow theCEB, network applications accessed via the CEB, locally installedapplications and/or other components of the client device to read from,write to, and/or delete information from the file system (if authorizedto do so). Deleting data from the secure container can include deletingactual data stored in the secure container, deleting pointers to datastored in the secure container, deleting encryption keys used to decryptdata stored in the secure container, and the like. The secure containercan be installed by, e.g., the client application, an administrator, orthe client device manufacturer. The secure container can enable some orall of the enterprise data stored in the file system to be deletedwithout modifying private data stored on the client device outside ofthe secure container. The file system can facilitate selective orcomplete deletion of data from the file system. For example, anauthorized component of the enterprise's system can delete data from thefile system based on, e.g., encoded rules. In some embodiments, theclient application can delete the data from the file system, in responseto receiving a deletion command from the enterprise's system.

The secure container can include an access manager that governs accessto the file system by applications and other components of the clientdevice. Access to the file system can be governed based on documentaccess policies (e.g., encoded rules) maintained by the clientapplication, in the documents and/or in the file system. A documentaccess policy can limit access to the file system based on (1) whichapplication or other component of the client device is requestingaccess, (2) which documents are being requested, (3) time or date, (4)geographical position of the client device, (5) whether the requestingapplication or other component provides a correct certificate orcredentials, (6) whether the user of the client device provides correctcredentials, (7) other conditions, or any combination thereof. A user'scredentials can comprise, for example, a password, one or more answersto security questions (e.g., What is the mascot of your high school?),biometric information (e.g., fingerprint scan, eye-scan), and the like.Hence, by using the access manager, the secure container can beconfigured to be accessed only by applications that are authorized toaccess the secure container. As one example, the access manager canenable enterprise applications installed on the client device to accessdata stored in the secure container and to prevent non-enterpriseapplications from accessing the data stored in the secure container.

Temporal and geographic restrictions on document access can be useful.For example, an administrator can deploy a document access policy thatrestricts the availability of the documents (stored within the securecontainer) to a specified time window and/or a geographic zone (e.g., asdetermined by a GPS chip) within which the client device must reside inorder to access the documents. Further, the document access policy caninstruct the secure container or client application to delete thedocuments from the secure container or otherwise make them unavailablewhen the specified time period expires or if the client device is takenoutside of the defined geographic zone.

Some documents can have access policies that forbid the document frombeing saved within the secure container. In such embodiments, thedocument can be available for viewing on the client device only when theuser is logged in or authenticated via the cloud services for example.

The access manager can also be configured to enforce certain modes ofconnectivity between remote devices (e.g., an enterprise resource orother enterprise server) and the secure container. For example, theaccess manager can require that documents received by the securecontainer from a remote device and/or sent from the secure container tothe remote device be transmitted through secured tunnels/connections,for example. The access manager can require that all documentstransmitted to and from the secure container be encrypted. The clientapplication or access manager can be configured to encrypt documentssent from the secure container and decrypt documents sent to the securecontainer. Documents in the secure container can also be stored in anencrypted form.

The secure container can be configured to prevent documents or dataincluded within documents or the secure container from being used byunauthorized applications or components of the client device or otherdevices. For instance, a client device application having authorizationto access documents from the secure container can be programmed toprevent a user from copying a document's data and pasting it intoanother file or application interface, or locally saving the document ordocument data as a new file outside of the secure container. Similarly,the secure container can include a document viewer and/or editor that donot permit such copy/paste and local save operations. Moreover, theaccess manager can be configured to prevent such copy/paste and localsave operations. Further, the secure container and applicationsprogrammed and authorized to access documents from the secure containercan be configured to prevent users from attaching such documents toemails or other forms of communication.

One or more applications (e.g., applications installed on the clientdevice, and/or network applications accessed via the CEB) can beprogrammed or controlled (e.g., via policy-based enforcement) to writeenterprise-related data only into the secure container. For instance, anapplication's source code can be provided with the resource name of thesecure container. Similarly, a remote application (e.g., executing on adevice other than the client device) can be configured to send data ordocuments only to the secure container (as opposed to other componentsor memory locations of the client device). Storing data to the securecontainer can occur automatically, for example, under control of theapplication, the client application, and/or the secure browser. Theclient application can be programmed to encrypt or decrypt documentsstored or to be stored within the secure container. In certainembodiments, the secure container can only be used by applications (onthe client device or a remote device) that are programmed to identifyand use the secure container, and which have authorization to do so.

The network applications 406 can include sanctioned network applications426 and non-sanctioned network applications 428. By way of anon-limiting example, sanctioned network applications 426 can includenetwork applications from Workday, Salesforce, Office 365, SAP, and soon, while non-sanctioned network applications 426 can include networkapplications from Dropbox, Gmail, and so on. For instance, FIG. 4illustrates a case where sanctioned applications 426 are accessed via aCEB. In operation (1), a user instance of a client application 404, thatis installed on client device 402, can register or authenticate with theaccess gateway 422 of cloud services 408. For example, the user canauthenticate the user to the client device and login to the clientdevice 402. The client application can automatically execute, or beactivated by the user. In some embodiments, the user can sign in to theclient application (e.g., by authenticating the user to the clientapplication). In response to the login or sign-in, the clientapplication can register or authenticate the user and/or the clientapplication with the access gateway 422.

In operation (2), in response to the registration or authentication ofthe user, the access gateway 422 can identify or retrieve a list ofenumerated network applications available or pre-assigned to the user,and can provide the list to the client application. For example, inresponse to the registration or authentication, the access gateway canidentify the user and/or retrieve a user profile of the user. Accordingto the identity and/or user profile, the access gateway can determinethe list (e.g., retrieve a stored list of network applications matchedwith the user profile and/or the identity of the user). The list cancorrespond to network applications sanctioned for the user. The accessgateway can send the list to the client application or embedded browser,which can be presented via the client application or embedded browser tothe user (e.g., in a storefront user interface) for selection.

In operation (3), the user can initiate connection to a sanctionednetwork application (e.g., a SaaS application), by selecting from thelist of network applications presented to the user. For example, theuser can click on an icon or other representation of the sanctionednetwork application, displayed via the client application or embeddedbrowser. This user action can trigger the CEB to transmit a connectionor access request to a server that provisions the network application.The request can include a request to the server (e.g., SaaS provider) tocommunicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user. The servercan send a request to the access gateway to authenticate the user forexample.

In operation (4), the access gateway can perform SSO with the server, toauthenticate the user. For example, in response to the server's requestto authenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials ofthe user to the server(s) 430 for SSO, to access the selected networkapplication and/or other sanctioned network applications. In operation(5), the user can log into the selected network application, based onthe SSO (e.g., using the credentials). The client application (e.g., thenetworking agent 412 and/or the remote session agent 416) can establisha secure connection and session with the server(s) 430 to access theselected network application. The CEB can decrypt application trafficreceived via the secure connection. The CEB can monitor traffic sent viathe CEB and the secured connection to the servers 430.

In operation (6), the client application can provide information to theanalytics services 424 of cloud services 408, for analytics processing.For example, the cloud services agent 414 of the client application 404can monitor for or capture user interaction events with the selectednetwork application. The cloud services agent 414 can convey the userinteraction events to the analytics services 424, to be processed toproduce analytics.

FIG. 5 depicts an example embodiment of a system for using a securebrowser. In brief overview, the system includes cloud services 408,network applications 406 and client device 402. In some embodiments,various elements of the system are similar to that described above forFIG. 4, but that the client application (with embedded browser) is notavailable in the client device 402. A non-embedded application browsercan be available on the client device, from which a user can initiate arequest to access a sanctioned network application for instance. Anetwork application can be specified as being sanctioned or unsanctionedvia policies that can be set by an administrator or automatically (e.g.,via artificial intelligence).

For example, in operation (1), the user can log into the networkapplication using the standard browser. For accessing a sanctionednetwork application, the user can access a predefined URL and/orcorresponding webpage of a server that provisions the networkapplication, via the standard browser, to initiate a request to accessthe network application. In some embodiments, the request can beforwarded to or intercepted by a designated gateway service (e.g., in adata path of the request). For example, the gateway service can resideon the client device (e.g., as an executable program), or can reside ona network device 432 of the cloud services 408 for instance. In someembodiments, the access gateway can correspond to or include the gatewayservice. The gateway service can determine if the requested networkapplication is a sanctioned network application. The gateway service candetermine if a CEB initiated the request. The gateway service can detector otherwise determine that the request is initiated from a source(e.g., initiated by the standard browser) in the client device otherthan a CEB. In some embodiments, there is no requirement for adesignated gateway service to detect or determine if the request isinitiated from a CEB, for example if the requested network applicationis sanctioned, that user is initiating the request via a standardbrowser, and/or that the predefined URL and/or corresponding webpage isaccessed.

In operation (2), the server can authenticate the user via the accessgateway of the cloud services 408. The server can communicate with theaccess gateway to authenticate the user, in response to the request. Forinstance, the request can include an indication to the server tocommunicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user. In someembodiments, the server is pre-configured to communicate with the accessgateway to authenticate the user, for requests to access a sanctionednetwork application. The server can send a request to the access gatewayto authenticate the user. In response to the server's request toauthenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials of theuser to the server 430.

In operation (3), the gateway service and/or the server can direct (orredirect) all traffic to a secure browser 420 which provides a securebrowsing service. This can be in response to at least one of: adetermination that the requested network application is a sanctionednetwork application, a determination that the request is initiated froma source other than a CEB, a determination that the requested networkapplication is sanctioned, a determination that user is initiating therequest via a standard browser, and/or a determination that thepredefined URL and/or corresponding webpage is accessed.

The user's URL session can be redirected to the secure browser. Forexample, the server, gateway service and/or the access gateway cangenerate and/or send a URL redirect message to the standard browser,responsive to the determination. The secure browser plug-in of thestandard browser can receive the URL redirect message, and can forexample send a request to access the non-sanctioned network application,to the secure browser 420. The secure browser 420 can direct the requestto the server of the non-sanctioned network application. The URLredirect message can instruct the standard browser (and/or the securebrowser plug-in) to direct traffic (e.g., destined for the networkapplication) from the standard browser to the secure browser 420 hostedon a network device. This can provide clientless access and control viadynamic routing though a secure browser service. In some embodiments, aredirection of all traffic to the secure browser 420 is initiated orconfigured, prior to performing authentication of the user (e.g., usingSSO) with the server.

In some embodiments, the gateway service can direct or request theserver of the requested network application to communicate with thesecure browser 420. For example, the gateway service can direct theserver and/or the secure browser to establish a secured connectionbetween the server and the secure browser, for establishing anapplication session for the network application.

In some embodiments, the secured browser 420 comprises a browser that ishosted on a network device 432 of the cloud services 408. The securedbrowser 420 can include one or more features of the secured browser 420described above in connection with at least FIG. 4 for instance. Thehosted browser can include an embedded browser of a CEB that is hostedon the network device 432 instead of on the client device. The hostedbrowser can include an embedded browser of a hosted virtualized versionof the CEB that is hosted on the network device 432. Similar to the CEBinstalled on the client device, traffic is routed through the CEB hostedon the network device, which allows an administrator to have visibilityof the traffic through the CEB and to remain in control for securitypolicy control, analytics, and/or management of performance.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example implementation for browser redirectionusing a secure browser plug-in. In brief overview, the implementationincludes a web browser 512 with a secure browser plug-in 516 operatingon a client device, and a hosted web browser (or secure browser) 522residing on a network device. The web browser 512 can correspond to astandard browser, instead of an embedded browser as discussed above inconnection with FIG. 4 for example. The secure browser plug-in 516 canexecute within a first network 510 and access a server 430 in a secondnetwork 530. The first network 510 and the second network 530 are forillustration purposes and can be replaced with fewer or additionalcomputer networks. A secure browser plug-in 516 can be installed on thestandard browser 512. The plug-in can include one or more components.One such component can include an ActiveX control or Java control or anyother type and/or form of executable instructions capable of loadinginto and executing in the standard browser. For example, the standardbrowser can load and run an Active X control of the secure browserplug-in 516, in a memory space or context of the standard browser. Insome embodiments, the secure browser plug-in can be installed as anextension on the standard browser, and a user can choose to enable ordisable the plugin or extension. The secure browser plug-in cancommunicate and/or operate with the secured browser 420 for securing,using and/or accessing resources within the secured portion of thedigital workspace.

By using the secure browser plug-in 516 operating within the standardbrowser 512 network applications accessed via the standard browser 512can be redirected to a hosted secure browser. For instance, the securebrowser plug-in 516 can be implemented and/or designed to detect that anetwork application is being accessed via the standard browser, and candirect/redirect traffic from the client device associated with thenetwork application, to the hosted secure browser. The hosted securebrowser can direct traffic received from the network application, to thesecure browser plug-in 516 and/or a client agent 514 for renderingand/or display for example. The client agent 514 can execute within theweb browser 512 and/or the secure browser plug-in, and can includecertain elements or features of the client application 404 discussedabove in connection with at least FIG. 4 for example. For instance, theclient agent 514 can include a remote session agent 416 for renderingthe network application at the web browser 512. In some embodiments, thenetwork application is rendered at the hosted secure browser, and therendered data is conveyed or mirrored to the secure browser plug-in 516and/or the client agent 514 for processing and/or display.

By way of an example, a user can be working remotely and can want toaccess a network application that is internal to a secure corporatenetwork while the user is working on a computing device connected to anunsecure network. In this case, the user can be utilizing the standardbrowser 512 executing in the first network 510, in which the firstnetwork 510 can comprise an unsecure network. The server 430 that theuser wants to access can be on the second network 530, in which thesecond network 530 comprises a secure corporate network for instance.The user might not be able to access the server 430 from the unsecurefirst network 510 by clicking on an internal uniform record locator(URL) for the secure website 532. That is, the user may need to utilizea different URL (e.g., an external URL) while executing the standardbrowser 512 from the external unsecure network 510. The external URL canbe directed to or can address one or more hosted web browsers 522configured to access server(s) 430 within the second network 530 (e.g.,secure network). To maintain secure access, the secure browser plug-in516 can redirect an internal URL to an external URL for a hosted securebrowser.

The secure browser plug-in 516 can implement network detection in orderto identify whether or not to redirect internal URLs to external URLs.The standard browser 512 can receive a request comprising an internalURL for a website executing within the secure network. For example, thestandard browser 512 can receive the request in response to a userentering a web address (e.g., for secure website 532) in the standardbrowser. The secure browser plug-in 516 can redirect the user webbrowser application 512 from the internal URL to an external URL for ahosted web browser application. For example, the secure browser plug-in516 can replace the internal URL with an external URL for the hosted webbrowser application 522 executing within the secure network 530.

The secure browser plug-in 516 can allow the client agent 514 to beconnected to the hosted web browser application 522. The client agent514 can comprise a plug-in component, such as an ActiveX control or Javacontrol or any other type and/or form of executable instructions capableof loading into and executing in the standard browser 512. For example,the client agent 514 can comprise an ActiveX control loaded and run by astandard browser 512, such as in the memory space or context of the userweb browser application 512. The client agent 514 can be pre-configured,in some examples, to present the content of the hosted web browserapplication 522 within the user web browser application 512.

The client agent 514 can connect to a server or the cloud/hosted webbrowser service 520 using a thin-client or remote-display protocol topresent display output generated by the hosted web browser application522 executing on the service 520. The thin-client or remote-displayprotocol can be any one of the following non-exhaustive list ofprotocols: the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocoldeveloped by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; or the RemoteDesktop Protocol (RDP) manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation ofRedmond, Wash.

The hosted web browser application 522 can navigate to the requestednetwork application in full-screen mode, and can render the requestednetwork application. The client agent 514 can present the content orrendition of the network application on the web browser application 512in a seamless and transparent manner such that it appears that thecontent is being displayed by the standard browser 512, e.g., based onthe content being displayed in full screen mode. In other words, theuser can be given the impression that the website content is displayedby the user web browser application 512 and not by the hosted webbrowser application 522. The client agent 514 can transmit navigationcommands generated by the user web browser application 512 to the hostedweb browser application 522 using the thin-client or remote-displayprotocol. Changes to the display output of the hosted web browserapplication 522, due to the navigation commands, can be reflected in theuser web browser application 512 by the client agent 514, giving theimpression to the user that the navigation commands were executed by theuser web browser application 512.

Referring again to FIG. 5, and in operation (4), a new browser tab canopen on the standard browser, to render or display the secure browsersession. The new browser tab can be established or opened by the securebrowser plug-in for instance. The secure browser plug-in and/or a clientagent can receive data from the secure browser session, and can renderthe network application within the new browser tab as discussed above inconnection with FIG. 6 for instance.

In operation (5), the secure browser can feed all user interactionevents via the network application, back to analytics service forprocessing. The secure browser plug-in can monitor for and intercept anyuser interaction events directed to the rendition of the networkapplication within the browser tab. Hence, a user can use a native (orstandard) browser to access a network application while allowingvisibility into the network application's traffic, via theinteroperation of cloud services and a secure browser (in the absence ofthe client application).

FIG. 7 depicts another example embodiment of a system of using a securebrowser. In brief overview, the system includes cloud services 408,network applications 406 and the client device 402. In some embodiments,various elements of the system are similar to that described above forFIG. 5. A client application with embedded browser is not available inthe client device 402. A standard or typical (e.g., HTML5) browser isavailable on the client device, from which a user can initiate a requestto access a non-sanctioned network application. A network applicationcan be specified as being sanctioned or non-sanctioned via policies thatcan be set by an administrator or automatically (e.g., via artificialintelligence).

In operation (1), the user can attempt to log into a non-sanctionednetwork application using the standard browser. The user can attempt toaccess a webpage of a server that provisions the network application,and to initiate a request to access the network application. In someembodiments, the request can be forwarded to or intercepted by adesignated gateway service (e.g., in a data path of the request). Forexample, the gateway service (sometimes referred to as SWG) can resideon the client device (e.g., as an executable program), or can reside ona network device 432 of the cloud services 408 for instance. The gatewayservice can detect or otherwise determine if the requested networkapplication is a sanctioned network application. The gateway service candetermine if a CEB initiated the request. The gateway service can detector otherwise determine that the request is initiated from a source(e.g., initiated by the standard browser) in the client device otherthan a CEB.

In operation (2), the gateway service detects that the requested networkapplication is a non-sanctioned network application. The gateway servicecan for instance extract information from the request (e.g., destinationaddress, name of the requested network application), and compare theinformation against that from a database of sanctioned and/ornon-sanctioned network applications. The gateway service can determine,based on the comparison, that the requested network application is anon-sanctioned network application.

In operation (3), responsive to the determination, the gateway servicecan block access to the requested network application, e.g., by blockingthe request. The gateway service can generate and/or send a URL redirectmessage to the standard browser, responsive to the determination. TheURL redirect message can be similar to a URL redirect message sent fromthe server to the standard browser in FIG. 5 in operation (3). A securebrowser plug-in of the standard browser can receive the URL redirectmessage, and can for example send a request to access the non-sanctionednetwork application, to the secure browser 420. The secure browser 420can direct the request to the server of the non-sanctioned networkapplication.

The server of the non-sanctioned network application can authenticatethe user via the access gateway of the cloud services 408, e.g.,responsive to receiving the request from the secure browser. The servercan communicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user, inresponse to the request. The server can send a request to the accessgateway to authenticate the user. In response to the server's request toauthenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials of theuser to the server 430. Upon authentication, the secure browser (or acorresponding CEB) can establish a secured connection and an applicationsession with the server.

In operation (4), a new browser tab can open on the standard browser, torender or display the secure browser's application session. The newbrowser tab can be established or opened by the secure browser plug-infor instance. The secure browser plug-in and/or a client agent canreceive data from the secure browser session, and can render the networkapplication within the new browser tab as discussed above in connectionwith FIGS. 5-6 for instance.

In operation (5), the secure browser can feed all user interactionevents via the network application, back to analytics service forprocessing. The secure browser plug-in can monitor for and intercept anyuser interaction events directed to the rendition of the networkapplication within the browser tab. Hence, a user can use a native (orstandard) browser to access a network application while allowingvisibility into the network application's traffic, via theinteroperation of cloud services and a secure browser (in the absence ofthe client application).

In some embodiments, in the absence or non-availability of a CEB on theclient device, browser redirection is performed so that each requestednetwork application is accessed via a corresponding hosted securebrowser (or hosted CEB) for handling, instead of having all trafficredirected through a single hosted secure browser (or hosted CEB). Eachdedicated secure browser can provide compartmentalization and improvedsecurity.

The use of a CEB, whether hosted or local to the client device, canallow for end-to-end visibility of application traffic for analytics,service level agreement (SLA), resource utilization, audit, and so on.In addition to such visibility, the CEB can be configured with policiesfor managing and controlling any of these as well as other aspects. Forexample, DLP features can be supported, to control “copy and paste”activities, download of files, sharing of files, and to implementwatermarking for instance. As another example, the CEB can be configuredwith policies for managing and controlling access to local drives and/ordevice resources such as peripherals.

Referring now to FIG. 8, an example embodiment of a system for usinglocal embedded browser(s) and hosted secured browser(s) is depicted. Anenvironment is shown where different types of client devices 402A, 402Bcan be used (e.g., in a BYOD context), such that one can be locallyequipped with a suitable CEB, and another client device may not have asuitable local CEB installed. In such an environment, systems describedin FIGS. 4, 5 and 7 can be used to support each of the client devicesbased on the availability of a locally installed and suitable CEB.

FIG. 9 depicts an example process flow for using local embeddedbrowser(s) and hosted secured browser(s). The process flow can be usedin the environment described above in FIG. 8, to determine whether anembedded browser or a hosted secured browser should be used for eachclient device to access a network application. For example, in operation901, a HTTP client can attempt to access a web service (e.g., server ofa network application). In operation 903, the web service can redirectthe HTTP client to a gateway service for authentication. In operation905, the gateway service can determine if the HTTP client is a CEB. Ifso, in operation 909, the gateway service can determine if the CEB is asuitable CEB, e.g., capable of enforcing defined application policies.If so, in operation 911, the CEB is allowed access to the web service,and can enforce the defined policies.

If the gateway service determines that the HTTP client is not a CEB, thegateway service can cause a virtualized version of a CEB to beinitialized and hosted on a remote server (e.g., a network device 432 ofcloud services 408), in operation 907. In some embodiments, such ahosted CEB can already be available on a network device 432, and can beselected for use. For example in operation 911, the CEB is allowedaccess to the web service, and can enforce the defined policies.

If the gateway service determines that the HTTP client is a CEB, butthat the CEB is not a suitable CEB, the gateway service can cause avirtualized version of a CEB to be initialized and hosted on a remoteserver (e.g., a network device 432 of cloud services 408), in operation907. In some embodiments, such a hosted CEB can already be available ona network device 432, and can be selected for use. For example inoperation 911, the CEB is allowed access to the web service, and canenforce the defined policies.

In some embodiments, if the user is requesting access to a webapplication located in a company data center, the gateway service (incloud service or on premise) can allow access when the clientapplication with CEB is detected. Otherwise, the request can be routedto a service with the hosted virtualized version of the CEB, and thenaccess is authenticated and granted.

At operation 905 and/or operation 909 for instance, the decisions madeon whether the HTTP client is a CEB and whether it is a suitable CEB canbe determined by a number of factors. For example, to determine if theHTTP client is CEB, the gateway service can take into account factors,for example including at least one of: user Identity and strength ofauthentication, client Location, client IP Address, how trusted the useridentity, client location, client IP are, jailbreak status of the clientdevice, status of anti-malware software, compliance to corporate policyof the client device, and/or remote attestation or other evidence ofintegrity of the client software.

To determine if the CEB is able to honor or support all definedapplication policies (which can vary by client version, client OSplatform and other factors), the client device's software and gatewayservice can perform capability negotiation and/or exchange versioninformation. In some embodiments, the gateway service can query or checka version number or identifier of the CEB to determine if the CEB is asuitable CEB to use.

Driving all the traffic though the CEB then allows additional control ofcontent accessing SaaS and Web based systems. Data Loss Prevention (DLP)of SaaS and Web traffic can be applied through the CEB app with featuresincluding copy and paste control to other CEB access applications or ITmanaged devices. DLP can also be enforced by enabling content to bedownloaded only to designated file servers or services under IT control.

Referring now to FIG. 10, depicted is an example embodiment of a systemfor managing user access to webpages. Some webpages (or websites) areknown to be safe while others can be suspect. A user can access awebpage via a corresponding URL through a standard browser. For example,the user can click on a link corresponding to the URL, which can beincluded in an email being viewed using a mail application. An accessgateway (SWG) can intercept an access request generated by the clickingof the link, and can determine if the corresponding URL is safe orsuspect. If the URL is known to be safe, the access gateway can allowthe request to proceed to the corresponding website or web server. Ifthe URL is suspect, the access gateway can redirect the request to behandled via a hosted secure browser. The secure browser can requestaccess for, and access the webpage (on behalf of the standard browser),and can allow the webpage information to be conveyed to the standardbrowser, similar to the handling of a network application via browserredirection as discussed in connection with at least FIGS. 5 and 7.

C. Systems and Methods for Systems and Methods for Managing Sessions toNetwork Applications Accessed Via a Client Application Including anEmbedded Browser

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods formanaging sessions to network applications accessed via a clientapplication including an embedded browser. A client applicationexecuting on a client device can allow a user to access applications(apps) that are served from and/or hosted on one or more servers, suchas web applications and SaaS applications (hereafter sometimes generallyreferred to as network applications). A browser that is embedded orintegrated with the client application can render to the user a networkapplication that is accessed or requested via the client application,and can enable interactivity between the user and the networkapplication. The browser is sometimes referred to as an embeddedbrowser, and the client application with embedded browser (CEB) issometimes referred to as a workspace application. The client applicationcan establish a secure connection to the one or more servers to providean application session for the user to access the network applicationusing the client device and the embedded browser. The embedded browsercan be integrated with the client application to ensure that trafficrelated to the network application is routed through and/or processed inthe client application, which can provide the client application withreal-time visibility to the traffic (e.g., when decrypted through theclient application), and user interactions and behavior. The embeddedbrowser can provide a seamless experience to a user as the networkapplication is requested via the user interface (shared by the clientapplication and the embedded browser) and rendered through the embeddedbrowser within the same user interface. By using the embedded browser,the present disclosure can apply a consistent enforcement policy acrossdifferent SaaS apps accessed via the client device executing with theembedded browser. For example, SaaS apps or services can have a varietyof session timeout policies, or no timeout policy. The presentdisclosure can set, configure, provide or otherwise apply a singlepolicy, or a per app policy that applies to all web or SaaS appslaunched from the CEB.

The client application can monitor keyboard activity during usage ofeach CEB session. When the time limit set by the administrator (or otherentity or file) is reached, the client application can execute a commandto kill the CEB app for all CEB sessions (of a single application ormultiple applications). Further, the systems and methods of the presentdisclosure can allow a policy to keep sessions launched in the CEB to bekept alive as long as there is any activity in any of the CEB sessions.The activity monitor for each CEB session can report actual keyboardactivity to the primary CEB app. Each CEB session can include a processto simulate keyboard activity. The simulated keyboard activity caninclude, for example, a blank space and enter then backspace or otherkeyboard activity that reports activity to the SaaS system but does notalter the desired user input into the CEB app or CEB session. The clientapplication can execute the keyboard simulation in each idle CEB sessionwhen there is actual keyboard activity in any CEB session. However, whenthere is no actual keyboard activity in any session, the keyboardsimulation will not be run. Thus, the client application can facilitatetiming out all sessions according to the policy.

Referring to FIG. 11, depicted is a block diagram of one embodiment of asystem 1100 for managing sessions to network applications. The system1100 can include one or more servers 430 and one or more client devices402. The system 1100 can include one or more input/output devices 1118communicatively coupled or connected to the client device 402. Thesystem 1100 can include a client application 404 that includes anembedded browser 410 that can render information of a networkapplication 406 accessed via the client application 404. The clientapplication 404 can be an instance of the client application 404previously detailed herein. The client application 404 with the embeddedbrowser 410 (CEB) can include any element of a CEB as previouslydescribed herein. In some embodiments, the client applications 404 canexecute on a client device 402 operated by a user. In some embodiments,the client device 402 can include one or more policy managers 1112. Insome embodiments, the client device 402 can include one or more activitymonitors 1114. In some embodiments, the client device 402 can includeone or more activity simulators 1116. In some embodiments, the clientapplication 404 can establish or execute the one or more policy managers1112. In some embodiments, the client application 404 can establish orexecute the one or more activity monitors 1114. In some embodiments, theclient application 404 can establish or execute the one or more activitysimulators 1116.

The network application 406 can be an instance of the networkapplication 406 previously detailed herein. The network application caninclude any type or form of network application 406 previously detailedherein. The one or more client devices 402 can communicate, interfacewith, or otherwise interact with the one or more servers via a network1104. The network 1104 can include one or more component orfunctionality of the transport network 262 depicted in FIG. 2 or thepublic internet 284 depicted in FIG. 2, or some other network orInternet communication channel.

Each of the above-mentioned elements or entities is implemented inhardware, or a combination of hardware and software, in one or moreembodiments. Each component of the system 1100 can be implemented usinghardware or a combination of hardware or software detailed above inconnection with FIG. 1. For instance, each of these elements or entitiescan include any application, program, library, script, task, service,process or any type and form of executable instructions executing onhardware of a client device (e.g., the client applications 404). Thehardware includes circuitry such as one or more processors in one ormore embodiments.

Still referring to FIG. 11, and in further detail, the system 1100 caninclude a client application 404. The client application 404 can bedesigned, constructed or operational to establish a session 1106 to anetwork application. The client application 404 can establish one ormore sessions 1106 to one or more network applications 406. For example,the client application 404 can establish a single session 1106 to asingle network application 406. The client application 404 can establishmultiple sessions 1106 to a single network application 406. The clientapplication 404 can establish a single separate session 1106 to multiplerespective network applications 406. The client application 404 canestablish multiple sessions 1106 to each of multiple networkapplications 406.

The client application 404 can establish the sessions 1106 to the one ormore network applications 406 via an embedded browser 410 of the clientapplication 404 or client device 402. The client application 404 canestablish multiple sessions 1106 to the one or more network application406 by using one or more session establishment techniques, procedures,protocols, or processes described in FIG. 4. For example, the clientapplication 404 can include a networking agent 412 that establishes orfacilitates establishment of a network connection between the clientapplication 404 and one or more resources (e.g., server 430 serving anetwork application 406). The client application 404 can performhandshaking for a requested connection from the client application 404to access a network application 406, and can establish the requestedconnection (e.g., secure or encrypted connection). The clientapplication 404 can connect to enterprise resources (including services)for instance via a virtual private network (VPN) or secure socket layer(SSL) VPN between the client application 404 and the server 430providing the network application 406. The client application caninclude a remote session agent 416, for example as depicted in FIG. 4,to support display a remoting protocol (e.g., HDX or ICA), or establisha remote desktop session and/or remote application session for anyvariety of protocols, such as the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP),Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), Remote Frame Buffer (RFB) Protocol, andICA Protocol. For example, the client application 404 (e.g., via remotesession agent 416) can establish a remote application session for a userof the client device to access an enterprise network application. Thus,the client application 404 can establish the remote application session(e.g., session with the network application 406) within or over a secureconnection (e.g., a VPN) established by the networking agent 412 forinstance.

In some embodiments, the system 1100 can include one or more policymanagers 1112. In some embodiments, the client application 404 caninclude or execute a policy manager 1112, or otherwise provide one ormore component or functionality of the policy manager 1112. The policymanager 1112 can be designed, constructed or operational to identify asession timeout policy for managing a session of the client application.The client application 404 (e.g., via policy manager 1112) can identifythe session timeout policy specifying a time period (e.g., 1 minute, 2minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 1hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, etc.) for which a session isdetermined to be inactive. In some embodiments, the policy manager 1112can input one or more values or parameters into the session timeoutpolicy in order to compute or otherwise determine the time period forwhich a session is determined to be inactive. In some embodiments, theembedded browser can be configured to use the same session policy ordefault session policy for all sessions established via the embeddedbrowser. In some embodiments, the session timeout policy can beconfigured for a type of session, type of network application 406, typeof client device 402, user profile information, organization profileinformation, or other environmental factors such as geographic location,time of day, month, season, etc.

The client application 404 may receive or identify the session timeoutpolicy responsive to or at the time of establishing the session to thenetwork application 406. In some embodiments, to identify or determinethe session timeout policy or the time period, the client application404 can query a session policies data repository 1110. The sessionpolicies data repository 1110 can be managed or maintained by the server430. The session timeout policies depository 1110 can be maintained ormanaged by the same server that provides the network application 406. Insome cases, the session policies data repository 1110 can be maintainedor managed by a server 430 that is different from the server 430 thatprovides the network application 406.

The session policies data repository 1110 can include one or morepolicies for the one or more network applications 406 provided via theone or more servers 430. The policy can be configured or established bya provider of the network application 406. The policy can be configuredor established by an administrator of the network application 406,server 430, or client device 402. For example, an application developerthat developed network application 406 can establish a session policyfor the network application 406. In another example, an administrator ofthe server 430 that runs, executes or otherwise provides the networkapplication 430 can configure or establish the session policy. In yetanother example, an administrator or user of the client device 402 canconfigure or establish a session policy for the network application 406.

In some embodiments, multiple session policies may be established orprovided for a single network application 406. The multiple sessionpolicies may be consistent or inconsistent with one another. In someembodiments, the session policy can be provided to the clientapplication 404 (or policy manager 1112) responsive to initiating,launching, or accessing the network application 406 via the embeddedbrowser 410. For example, the session policies data repository 1110 cantransmit or provide the policy to use for a particular networkapplication 406 or particular session for the network application 406responsive to the client application 404 establishing the session to thenetwork application 406 via the embedded browser 410. In some cases, theclient application 404 can transmit a request or query to the sessionpolicies data repository 1110 for the session timeout policy during orresponsive to establishment of the session 1106 to the networkapplication 406 via the embedded browser 410. For example, duringestablishment of the session 1106 to the network application 406, theclient application can obtain, retrieve or otherwise identify one ormore parameters or policies associated with the network application 406to be used to manage or maintain the session 1106 to the networkapplication 406. The client application 406 can obtain the parameters orpolicies for each of the sessions to the one or more networkapplications 406.

In some embodiments, the policy manager 1112 can transmit a request orquery the session policies data repository 1110 for a session timeoutpolicy based on an identifier or other parameter or value associatedwith the session. For example, the policy manager 1112 can query thesession policies data repository 1110 to obtain a first session timeoutpolicy for a first network application 406. The policy manager 1112 canquery the session policies data repository 1110 via network 1104. Thepolicy manager 1112 can query the session policies data repository 1110via server 430. The policy manager 1112 can provide one or moreidentifiers to use to perform the query. The identifier can be anidentifier associated with the client device 402, such as a deviceidentifier, username, user identifier, account identifier, or loginidentifier. The identifier can be associated with the client application404 or embedded browser 410 used to access the network application 406,such as a version of the client application 404 or embedded browser 406,provider of the client application 404, or other identifier or indicatorof the type or version of the client application 404 or embedded browser410. The identifier can be associated with the network application 406,such as a name of the network application 406, type of networkapplication 406, or version of the network application 406. Thus, thepolicy manager 1112 can construct or generate a request or query totransmit to server 430 to determine or identify a session timeout policyto use.

The policy manager 1112 can transmit a request or query to the sessionpolicies data repository 1110 or server 430 for the session timeoutpolicy. The policy manager 1112 can cause the session policies datarepository 1110 to perform a lookup in the data repository using the oneor more identifiers or other information provided in the request orquery in order to identify or retrieve the corresponding session timeoutpolicy for the first network application 406. The session policies datarepository 1110 can provide, responsive to the lookup, one or moresession timeout policies. The one or more session timeout policies cancorrespond to or be responsive to the one or more identifiers or otherinformation provided in the query.

The session policy can vary based on the network application 406 beingaccessed or parameters or factors associated with the client device 402or the session. The session policies can be based on profile informationassociated with a client device 402, account associated with the clientdevice 402, profile associated with the network application 406,historical session information or historical session timeout policiesused by the client device 402, account associated with the client device402, or network application 406. Factors associated with the clientdevice 402 can include type of client device (e.g., desktop computer,laptop computer, tablet computing device, mobile computing device,smartphone, etc.), public client device 402 versus private client device402, operating system of the client device 402, antivirus softwarerunning on the client device 402, type of network interface being usedby the client device 402 (e.g., wired Ethernet, wireless internet,public internet, private intranet, etc.), geographic location of theclient device 402 (e.g., state, country, city, work location, homelocation or traveling location). Factors associated with the session caninclude, for example, time of day of the session, date of the session,number of other concurrent or overlapping sessions, authentication levelof the session. Factors associated with the network application 406being accessed can include, for example, nature or type of the networkapplication 406 (e.g., a financial application, multimedia playerapplication, gaming application, security application, etc.).

The session policies can specify values, conditions, parameters,activities, triggers, commands or actions that can be used by the clientapplication 404 or embedded browser 410 to manage a session 1106 to anetwork application 406. Example values, conditions or parameters ofsession timeout policies can include time period or duration of thesession, time period or duration of inactivity, network bandwidth usage,processor usage, memory usage, input/output device usage, geofencearound client device 402, number of concurrent or overlapping sessions,number of errors or faults detected in a session, number of packet dropsassociated with a session, etc. Example commands or actions specified inor by a session timeout policy can include terminate the session, resumethe session, disconnect the session, disable the session, disable orlimit certain functionality of the session (e.g., input, type of input,output, type of output, limit memory usage, limit or throttle processorusage, limit or throttle network bandwidth usage), request re-entry ofauthentication or login credentials for the session, or generate aprompt. For example, the session policy can be a session timeout policythat specifies a time period for which a session is determined to beinactive, and command to terminate the session responsive to detectionof session inactivity for the time period. Thus, the session timeoutpolicy can cause the client application 404 to terminate the sessionresponsive to detecting inactivity for the specified time period. If theclient application 404 detects that a session has been inactive for anamount of time that is greater than or equal to the specified time ofthe session timeout policy identified for the session 1106, then thesession policy can cause the client application 404 to terminate the oneor more sessions.

In another example, a session policy can include a geofence, and anaction can include termination of the session or a prompt that requestsaffirmation to continue the session responsive to triggering of thegeofence. A geofence can refer to a geographic boundary or radius arounda specific location, such as a current location or other predeterminedlocation. The policy can be triggered responsive to the client device402 crossing the geofence.

In another example, a session policy can include memory utilization ofthe session, and an action to limit or prevent further memory usage. Forexample, the session policy can set a maximum allocated memory for thesession, and if the session exceeds the memory amount, the policy cancause the client application 404 to block further memory usage, generatea prompt to request authorization for further memory usage, or terminatethe session.

In another example, a session policy can specify an activity thattriggers an action. The activity can be an activity in the session, suchas a type of input or request. The type of input can be a malicious orfraudulent input or activity. The activity can be detected based on acode word, keyword or other term. The activity can be detected based ona series of inputs or multiple or excessive requests or inputs. Theaction can include terminating the session. The action can includelocking an account, the client application 404, or the embedded browser410 to prevent further access to the network application 406 for apredetermined time period or until an administrator unlocks the clientdevice 402, client application 404 or embedded browser 410.

The system 1100 can include an activity monitor 1114 designed,constructed or operational to monitoring activity in the embeddedbrowser for each of the plurality of sessions. The activity monitor 1114can monitor the session for an activity, a value, a parameter, or othercondition specified in the session policy identified for the session bythe policy manager 1112. The activity monitor 1114 can be executed orinitiated by the client application 404, embedded browser 410, or policymanager 1112. For example, the client application 404 can initiate,launch or execute the activity monitor 1114 responsive to establishingthe session 1106 to the network application 406. In some cases, theclient application 404 can execute or launch a separate activity monitor1114 or instance of the activity monitor 1114 for each session 1106 toeach network application 406. In some cases, the client application 402can consolidate the number of instances of activity monitors 1114 ifthere are multiple sessions 1106 that are configured to track or monitorthe same activity or parameter. In some embodiments, the clientapplication 404 can determine to invoke or execute the activity monitor1114 responsive to detecting that there is more than one sessionestablished in the embedded browser 410. For example, if there is onlyone session established in the embedded browser, the client application404 may determine not to execute an activity monitor 1114 in order toconserve computational or power resources, but if there is more than onesession established in the embedded browser 410, then the clientapplication 404 can determine to execute an activity monitor 1114 foreach of the sessions to facilitate enforcement of a consistent sessiontimeout policy across the multiple sessions. In some embodiments, theclient application 404 can execute the activity monitor 1114 even ifonly one session has been established in order to enforce a sessiontimeout policy that may be different than the session timeout policyconfigured by an administrator of the network application 406 beingaccessed in the session (e.g., enforce a session timeout policyestablished by a user of the client device 402 that may have a differenttimeout value as compared to the session policy established by theadministrator of the network application 406). If there are differenttimeout policies that may conflict with one another, the system canselect the longest timeout policy to apply to all sessions, the shortesttimeout policy to apply to all sessions, or the timeout policycorresponding to the session or network application having the highestpriority or weight (e.g., based on security requirements or ability toaccess sensitive data).

The activity monitor 1114 can be communicatively coupled to one or moreI/O devices 1118 or an interface of the client device 402 or clientapplication 404 that receives input or provides output from or to theI/O devices 1118. The activity monitor 114 can access, monitor or trackthe activity associated with the session 1106 based on activityassociated with the I/O devices 1118. The activity monitor 1114 cantrack or monitor activity of the session based on data packetstransmitted or received during the session. For example, the activitymonitor 1114 can include a hooking component configured to intercept orotherwise track or monitor data packets received or sent during thesession 1106 over network 1104. The activity monitor 1114 can be a partof the embedded browser 410 or client application 404, or otherwiseintegrated or interfaced with the client application 404 or embeddedbrowser 410.

The activity monitor 1114 can monitor specific types of activity asspecified by the session policy for the session 1106, while ignoring ornot monitoring or tracking other activity. In some embodiments, theactivity monitor 114 can monitor for a type of activity without parsingor otherwise processing aspects or information of the session. Forexample, the activity monitor 1114 can track or monitor an activitylevel of the session 1106. Activity level can be based on input activityinto the session 1106, or output activity from the session 1106. Theactivity level can be binary, such as inactive (or idle) or active.Inactive or idle can refer to not detecting any keyboard input for thesession 1106 for a specified time period. Inactive or idle can refer tonot detecting any mouse clicks or trackpad clicks or other input intothe session 1106 for the specified time period. Inactive or idle canrefer to or include not receiving any voice input via a microphone forthe session 1106. Inactive or idle can refer to not receiving any inputfor the session 1106 via an I/O device 1116 (e.g., movement detected viaan accelerometer, audio input detected via a microphone, visual inputdetected via a camera, touch input detected via a multitouch sensor,etc.).

The activity level can include degrees of activity, such as inactive,low activity, medium activity, or high activity. The activity level caninclude a score or metric, such as an amount of activity per time periodor rate of activity (e.g., number of keyboard or mouse inputs per secondor other time interval). Activity level can be based on output from thesession 1106 (e.g., output of network application 1106 accessed via theembedded browser 410). Output activity level can be based on amount ofdata packets output during the session, screen motion, variation orchange in pixels being rendered in the embedded browser 410 for thesession, processor or memory utilization for the session 1106, etc.

Thus, the client application 404 or client device 402 can establish oneor more activity monitors 1114 for monitoring each session 1106 of themultiple sessions 1106 used to access the one or more networkapplications 406. The one or more activity monitors 1114 can monitoractivity associated with the session 1106 pursuant to the session policyidentified for the session 1106, such as keyboard activity in eachsession.

If the activity monitor 1114 detects that one of the sessions 1106 isinactive or idle, the client application 404 can terminate each of thesessions established by the client application 404. For example, theclient application 404 can terminate each of the sessions 1106 accessedvia the embedded browser 410 responsive to detecting that at least oneof the sessions 1106 is inactive or idle. To do so, the clientapplication 404 can execute a command to terminate the networkapplication 406, session 1106, or client application 404 itself. Thus,the client application 404 can terminate all sessions responsive todetecting that one of the sessions is about to timeout due toinactivity, thereby providing a consistent session timeout policy forall sessions.

In some embodiments, the system 1100 can include an activity simulator1116 designed, constructed or operational to simulate activity in one ormore sessions 1106 that are idle if one or more of the other sessionsare active. The client device 402, client application 404, or embeddedbrowser 410 can initiate, launch, execute or otherwise establish anactivity simulator 1116 for a session 1106. The client application 404can execute the activity simulator 1116 for the idle or inactivesessions responsive to detecting activity in one of the other sessions.The client application 404 can execute the activity simulator 1116 foreach idle session if the one or more activity monitors 1114 has detectedthat any one of the sessions has activity. For example, the clientapplication 404 can establish three sessions to one or more networkapplications as follows: a first session, a second session, and a thirdsession. The activity monitor 1114 can detect activity in the firstsession, but may detect that the second session and the third sessionare both idle or inactive based on not receiving any keyboard input forthe second and third sessions. Responsive to determining that the firstsession is active, but the second and third sessions are inactive oridle, the client application 404 can execute an activity simulator 1116for the second session and execute an activity simulator 1116 for thethird session. Further, the client application 404 can determine to notexecute an activity simulator 1116 for the first session because theclient application 404 determined that the first session is active ornot idle.

In some embodiments, however, the client application 404 can determineto not execute an activity simulator 1116 if the client application 404(e.g., via activity monitor 1114) determines that all of the sessionsestablished by the client application 404 are inactive or idle. Forexample, if the client application 404 had established a total of threesessions, and determined that all three sessions were idle, then theclient application 404 can determine to forego or not execute theactivity simulator 1116, thus reducing processor and memory utilizationon the client device 402 by not simulating activity of each of the idlesessions. Thus, the client application 404 can determine to not executethe one or more activity simulators 1116 responsive to the one or moreactivity monitors 1114 detecting that all of the sessions are idle.

In some embodiments, the client application 404 can determine to executean activity simulator 1116 to simulate activity in one or more sessionsresponsive to the one more activity monitors 1114 detecting that the oneor more sessions are idle and that the time period of the sessiontimeout policy has not been reached for any of the sessions. Theactivity simulator 1116 can simulate activity to cause the clientapplication 404 or embedded browser 410 to report activity to the SaaSsystem, but does not alter the desired user input, thereby preventingthe SaaS system (e.g., server 430 or network application 406) fromterminating the session. The simulation can be in each idle CEB sessionwhen there is actual activity in any CEB session. When there is noactual activity in any session, the simulation may not be run. Thus, theactivity simulator 1116 allows for all sessions 1106 established via theembedded browser 410 to time out according to a single session policy.

For example, the client application 404 can establish a first session, asecond session, and a third session. The client application 404 (e.g.,via activity monitor 1114) can determine that the first session is idlebased on not detecting any keyboard activity for the specified timeperiod of the session policy for the first session. However, theactivity monitor 1114 can determine that the specified time period forthe second and third sessions has not yet been reached. The activitymonitor 1114 may or may not have detected any activity in the second andthird sessions, but since the specified time period for the second andthird session (which may be the same or different specified time period)has not been reached, the client application 404 can determine toexecute the activity simulator 1114 for the second and third sessions.Thus, and in some embodiments, because the respective specified timeperiod for the second and third sessions has not yet been reached, theclient application 404 can execute a respective activity simulator 1116for each of the second and third sessions even though the activitymonitor 1114 may not have detected activity in the second and thirdsessions.

The activity simulator 1116 can simulate activity in a session 1106 forwhich the client application 404 executes the activity simulator 1116.The activity simulator 1116 can, in some embodiments, simulate activityin the session in order to prevent the session from being terminated duea timeout. For example, if a first session is active and a secondsession is idle, then the activity simulator 1116 can be executed forthe second session in order to simulate activity in the second session,thereby preventing the second session from being terminated or otherwisetiming out or trigging an action specified by the session policy for thesession.

The activity simulator 1116 can be configured to simulate activity inthe idle session. The activity can be selected to prevent thetermination of the session pursuant triggering of the session policy.The activity simulator 1116 can parse the session policy or otherwisedetermine the activity based on the session policy or an instruction orcommand from the client application 404. For example, if the sessionpolicy of the session 1106 monitors keyboard activity for the session1106 to determine whether the session 1106 is idle or active, then theactivity simulator 1116 can simulate a keyboard activity to cause thesession 1106 to still be active, thereby preventing termination of thesession. For example, the server 430 or network application 406 executedby the server 430 can keep track of the session 1106 to determinewhether to terminate the session based on the session being idle. Thus,to prevent the server 430 or network application 406 from terminatingthe session 1106, the activity monitor 1114 executing on the clientdevice 402 or by the client application 404 can determine whether thesession idle and whether to simulate activity in the session, and thenexecute the activity simulator 1116 for the session 1106 to simulateactivity in the session, thereby causing the server 430 or networkapplication 406 to detect activity and determine not to terminate thesession 1106 to the network application 406 via the embedded browser410.

The activity simulator 1116 can simulate activity that does not impactthe content of the network application 406. For example, simulatedactivity can include one or more keyboard inputs such as a blank spaceand then a backspace, thereby nullifying or cancelling out the previouskeyboard activity. Other types of non-intrusive activity that may notimpact the desired input can include a mouse over on a portion of therendering of the network application 406 in the embedded browser 410, apointer click on a portion of the rendering, inputting the escape buttonor other keyboard input that is known to not cause or trigger anundesired event or change in the network application 406.

The activity simulator 1116 can include a virtual controller, automator,or other program to simulate keypresses. The activity simulator 1116 canbe configured to simulate the activity in the session 1106 the activitymonitor 1114 determines to be idle, but not in the session 1106 theactivity monitor 1114 determines to be active. The activity simulator1116 can include or execute a script, program or function to simulatethe keyboard activity. The activity simulator 1116 can include a macrothat simulates the keyboard activity, such as one or more instructionsthat are configured to perform the desired simulation. The activitysimulator 1116 can simulate keystrokes to the target session 1106. Thetarget session 1106 (or target network application 406) may then believethat the user has manually typed in the keystrokes using the keyboard,while the keystrokes may actually be fed into the keyboard buffer forthe session 1106 by the activity simulator 1116. The macro configured tofeed the keystrokes can include, for example, characters to simulate andtags that indicate a pause or duration to allow the target networkapplication 406 to complete or process the keypress. For example, themacro can include keypress character “blank space”, followed by a pausefor 500 milliseconds, followed by the keypress character “delete.”

In some embodiments, the session policy may be configured to timeout afirst session responsive to the client device 402 being in the samegeographical location for the specified time, whereas a second sessiontimes out based on keyboard activity. The client application 404 candetect keyboard activity for the second session, but may detect that theclient device 402 has not moved for the specified time period, whichwould cause the network application 406 accessed by the embedded browser410 in the first session to timeout. However, the activity monitor 1114,upon detecting that the session policy for the first session is going tobe triggered, can execute the activity simulator 1116 to simulate motionor movement of the client device 402, which can be reported to the SaaSsystem (e.g., server 430 or network application 406), thereby preventingthe SaaS system from terminating the first session and maintaining aconsistent session timeout policy across the multiple establishedsessions, even though the different sessions are configured withdifferent types of session policies. For example, location may veryimportant, but the location-based policy may be overridden by the timeout policy based on non-use.

The client application 404 can determine whether to execute an activitysimulator 1116 to keep idle sessions from being terminated, or to notuse the activity simulator 1116, thereby causing an idle session toterminate an active session or a session that has not yet reached aspecified timeout period. For example, the client application 404 candetermine not to execute an activity simulator 1116 for a session if theactivity simulator 1116 has previously been executed a predeterminednumber of times (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, etc.) for the same sessionwithin a predetermined time period (e.g., 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, 24hours, etc.) to keep the session active.

In another example, the client application 404 can determine whether ornot to execute an activity simulator 1116 based on a setting establishedby an administrator of the client device 402, client application 404,server 430, or network application 406. The client application 404 candetermine whether or not to execute an activity simulator 1116 based ona type of client device 402 (e.g., execute activity simulators 1116 fordesktop computers or laptop computers, but do not execute activitysimulators 1116 for smartphones), type of operating system, power source(e.g., execute the activity simulator 1116 if the client device 402 isconnected to a power outlet, but do not execute the activity simulator1116 if the client device 402 is using a battery and not connected tothe power outlet), or based on devices connected to the clientapplication 404 (e.g., keep session active if the client device 402 isconnected to an external display or is in a presentation mode). In someembodiment, the client application 404 can determine whether to executean activity simulator 1116 based on a profile established for the userof the client device 402. In some embodiment, the client application 404can determine whether to execute an activity simulator 1116 based onhistorical activity associated with the user (e.g., based on log data,if the user typically re-establishes a first session responsive to asecond sessions going idle and causing termination of both the first andsecond sessions, then the client application 404 can automaticallydetermine to execute the activity simulator 1116 responsive to detectingthat the use has established the first and second sessions andresponsive to detecting that the second session is idle and is about tobe terminated, thereby automatically determining to prevent terminationof the second session and also automatically preventing termination ofboth the first and second sessions).

In some embodiments, the activity simulator 1116 can be executed tooverride a session timeout policy. For example, the embedded browser mayestablish a single session to a network application without establishingany other sessions. The session timeout policy established by anadministrator of the network application can specify a first timeoutvalue that is less than a second timeout value specified by a profileassociated with an account of the user of the client device 402. Theuser of the client device may prefer to use the second timeout valuethat is greater than the first timeout value. Thus, the clientapplication can execute an activity monitor 1114 to determine when thesession is idle, and then execute an activity simulator 1116 to simulateactivity that gets reported back to the network application 406, therebypreventing the network application 406 or server 430 from terminatingthe session responsive to the session being idle for the first timeoutvalue, thus overriding the timeout value specified by the administratorof the network application 406. The activity monitor 1114 can determine,responsive to detecting inactivity or idleness for the second timeoutvalue provided by the user, not to invoke or execute the activitysimulator 1116. Responsive to detecting the second timeout value, theclient application 404 can execute a command to terminate the session orclient application. Further, if the user-specified timeout value is lessthan the administrator specified timeout value, the client applicationcan execute a command to terminate the session or client applicationprior to when the network application 406 would have terminated thesession.

Referring to FIG. 12, depicted is a flow diagram of one embodiment of amethod managing sessions to one or more network applications accessedvia an embedded browser. The functionalities of the method 1200 can beimplemented using, or performed by, the components detailed herein inconnection with FIGS. 1-11. In brief overview, a client application canestablish a session to a network application at 1205. At 1210, theclient application can identify a session timeout policy. At 1215, theclient application can monitor activity in the sessions. At 1220, theclient application can detect inactivity in at least one of thesessions. At 1225, the client application can terminate the sessions.

Still referring to FIG. 12, and in further detail, the clientapplication can establish a session to a network application at 1205.The client application can establish multiple sessions to one or morenetwork applications. The network applications can be hosted on aserver. The client application can include, integrate with or otherwiseinterface or communicate with an embedded browser or CEB to establishthe session to the one or more network applications. The clientapplication can establish the multiple sessions simultaneously orserially. The client application, in some examples, can receive aninstruction to establish a predetermined subset of sessions to apredetermined one or more network applications such that the sessionsare concurrent or overlapping. The client application can receive aninstruction to establish a first session, and then subsequently receivean instruction or command to establish a second one or more sessions.The client application can receive the instruction or indication toestablish the session from a user of the client device. In someembodiments, a first session can provide an instruction or command toexecute the second one or more sessions to one or more networkapplications.

At 1210, the client application can identify a session timeout policy.The client application can identify a session timeout policy formanaging the sessions of or established by the client application. Thesession timeout policy can specify a time period for which a session isdetermined to be inactive. The client application can identify thesession policy or session timeout policy while establishing the session,such as during a handshaking process or other communication used toestablish the session. In some embodiments, the client application cantransmit a request or query to cloud server hosting the networkapplication in order to determine the session policy. In someembodiments, the client application can be preconfigured with aconfiguration file or data file that includes an index of sessionpolicies. In some embodiments, the embedded browser can be configured touse the same session policy or default session policy for all sessionestablished via the embedded browser.

At 1215, the client application can monitor activity in the sessions.The client application can monitor activity in the embedded browser foreach of the session established by the embedded browser. In someembodiments, the client application can determine to monitor activityresponsive to detecting that there are multiple sessions established viathe embedded browser. The client application can establish one or moreactivity monitors for monitoring each session of the plurality ofsessions. The client application can configure the activity monitors todetect or monitor for the type of activity that would trigger thesession timeout policy, such as keyboard activity, movement, visualdisplay, pixel changes, audio input or output, etc. The activity monitorcan be executed for each of the session established by the embeddedbrowser.

At 1220, the client application can detect inactivity in at least one ofthe sessions. The client applications can detect, responsive to themonitoring, that inactivity of one of the sessions has reached the timeperiod of the session timeout policy. For example, if the activitymonitor has not detected any keyboard activity for the session for thespecified time period, then the activity monitor can determine that thesession is inactive or idle.

At 1225, the client application can terminate the sessions. The clientapplication can terminate the sessions to the one or more networkapplications established via the embedded browser. The clientapplication can terminate the sessions responsive to the detection ofidleness in a session. To terminate the session, the client applicationcan execute or provide a termination command. The client application cantransmit the termination command to the network application. The clientapplication can terminate or exit the client application itself, therebyterminating or ending all of the sessions.

In some embodiments, the client application can establish an activitysimulator to simulate activity in one or more of the idle sessions. Theclient application can determine to establish an activity simulator tosimulate activity in each of the idle sessions to prevent the idlesessions from terminating another session that may be active. However,if all of the sessions are idle, then the client application determineto not execute an activity simulator, thereby allowing all of thesessions to be terminated by the client application or correspondingnetwork applications.

It should be understood that the systems described above can providemultiple ones of any or each of those components and these componentscan be provided on either a standalone machine or, in some embodiments,on multiple machines in a distributed system. The systems and methodsdescribed above can be implemented as a method, apparatus or article ofmanufacture using programming and/or engineering techniques to producesoftware, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. In addition,the systems and methods described above can be provided as one or morecomputer-readable programs embodied on or in one or more articles ofmanufacture. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass code or logic accessible from and embedded in oneor more computer-readable devices, firmware, programmable logic, memorydevices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, SRAMs, etc.), hardware (e.g.,integrated circuit chip, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA),Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.), electronicdevices, a computer readable non-volatile storage unit (e.g., CD-ROM,USB Flash memory, hard disk drive, etc.). The article of manufacture canbe accessible from a file server providing access to thecomputer-readable programs via a network transmission line, wirelesstransmission media, signals propagating through space, radio waves,infrared signals, etc. The article of manufacture can be a flash memorycard or a magnetic tape. The article of manufacture includes hardwarelogic as well as software or programmable code embedded in a computerreadable medium that is executed by a processor. In general, thecomputer-readable programs can be implemented in any programminglanguage, such as LISP, PERL, C, C++, C #, PROLOG, or in any byte codelanguage such as JAVA. The software programs can be stored on or in oneor more articles of manufacture as object code.

While various embodiments of the methods and systems have beendescribed, these embodiments are illustrative and in no way limit thescope of the described methods or systems. Those having skill in therelevant art can effect changes to form and details of the describedmethods and systems without departing from the broadest scope of thedescribed methods and systems. Thus, the scope of the methods andsystems described herein should not be limited by any of theillustrative embodiments and should be defined in accordance with theaccompanying claims and their equivalents.

We claim:
 1. A method for managing a plurality of sessions to one ormore network applications accessed via a client application comprisingan embedded browser, the method comprising: (a) establishing, by aclient application executable by one or more processors of a clientdevice, a plurality of sessions to one or more network applications, theplurality of sessions accessible via an embedded browser of the clientapplication; (b) identifying, by the client application, a plurality ofsession timeout policies corresponding to the plurality of sessions ofthe client application, at least one session timeout policy specifying atime period for which a corresponding session of the plurality ofsessions is determined to be inactive; (c) monitoring, by the clientapplication, activity in the embedded browser for the plurality ofsessions; (d) detecting, by the client application responsive to themonitoring, that inactivity of a first session of the plurality ofsessions has reached a first time period of a first session timeoutpolicy corresponding to the first session; (e) determining, by theclient application, to apply the first session timeout policy of thefirst session to the plurality of sessions of the client application;and (f) terminating, by the client application responsive to thedetecting the inactivity of the first session, the plurality ofsessions.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the embedded browser isintegrated into the client application.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the one or more network applications comprise an applicationhosted on a server accessed by the client device via a network.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein (c) further comprises establishing one ormore activity monitors for monitoring each session of the plurality ofsessions.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising monitoring by theone or more activity monitors keyboard activity in each session of theplurality of sessions.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingestablishing one or more activity simulators for simulating activity ineach session of the plurality of sessions.
 7. The method of claim 6,further comprising executing for each idle session of the plurality ofsessions the one or more activity simulators if any one of the pluralityof sessions has activity.
 8. The method of claim 6, further comprisingnot executing the one or more activity simulators for any of theplurality of sessions if all of the plurality of sessions are idle. 9.The method of claim 1, wherein (e) further comprising executing, by theclient application, a command to terminate the client application.
 10. Asystem for managing a plurality of sessions to one or more networkapplications accessed via a client application comprising an embeddedbrowser, the system comprising: a client application executable on oneor more processors of a client device, the client application comprisingan embedded browser and configured to: establish a plurality of sessionsto one or more network applications accessible via the embedded browser;and identify a plurality of session timeout policies corresponding tothe plurality of sessions of the client application, at least onesession timeout policy specifying a time period for which acorresponding session is determined to be inactive; one or more activitymonitors configured to monitor activity in the embedded browser for theplurality of sessions and detect that inactivity of a first session ofthe plurality of sessions has reached a first time period of a firstsession timeout policy corresponding to the first session; and whereinthe client application is configured to determine to apply the firstsession timeout policy of the first session to the plurality ofsessions, and terminate, responsive to the detection of the inactivityof the first session, the plurality of sessions.
 11. The system of claim10, wherein the embedded browser is integrated with the clientapplication.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more networkapplications comprise an application hosted on a server accessed by theclient device via a network.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the oneor more activity monitors are configured to monitor keyboard activity ofthe plurality of sessions.
 14. The system of claim 10, wherein theclient application is configured to execute a command to terminate oneof the client application, the embedded browser or each session of theplurality of sessions.
 15. A system comprising: a client applicationexecutable on one or more processors of a client device, the clientapplication comprising an embedded browser and configured to establish aplurality of sessions to one or more network applications accessed viathe embedded browser, wherein the plurality of sessions havecorresponding session timeout policies, and identify a single sessiontimeout policy for managing all of the plurality of sessions of theclient application, wherein the single session timeout policy isdifferent from at least one of the session timeout policies; wherein thesession timeout policies specify a time period for which a correspondingsession of the plurality of sessions is determined to be inactive; oneor more activity monitors configured to monitor activity in the embeddedbrowser for each of the plurality of sessions; and one or more activitysimulators configured to simulate activity in one or more sessions ofthe plurality of sessions to prevent the one or more sessions fromtermination based on a time period of one or more session timeoutpolicies being less than a time period of the single session timeoutpolicy, wherein the one or more activity simulators simulates theactivity responsive to the one or more activity monitors detecting thatthe one or more sessions are idle and that the time period of the singlesession timeout policy has not been reached for any of the plurality ofsessions.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the embedded browser isintegrated with the client application.
 17. The system of claim 15,wherein the one or more network applications comprise an applicationhosted on a server accessed by the client device via a network.
 18. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the one or more activity monitors areconfigured to monitor keyboard activity of the plurality of sessions.19. The system of claim 15, wherein an activity simulator of the one ormore activity simulators is configured to execute for each idle sessionof the plurality of sessions if the one or more activity monitors hasdetected that any one of the plurality of sessions has activity.
 20. Thesystem of claim 15, wherein the client application is configured not toexecute the one or more activity simulators responsive to the one ormore activity monitors detecting that all of the plurality of sessionsare idle.